Kinshasa, May 18th, 2025 (CPA).- The draft of the programming law for the reform of the Congolese National Police (PNC) for the period 2025-2029, estimated at 2.3 billion USD, has received on Thursday, during a plenary session of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a press release received on Sunday by CPA.
‘The deputy Prime Minister, Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo, has presented a summary of the draft law on programming the implementation of the reform of the PNC for the period 2025-2029 to the plenary session of the National Assembly on Thursday May 15th. At the end of the presentation, the plenary has declared the draft law admissible (…) at an estimated cost of USD 2.3 billion’, it is read in a press release from the Ministry in charge of the Interior and Security. This strategic text, assigned to the Lower House’s Defence and Security Committee for detailed examination, aims to provide the PNC with a renewed, effective framework that is adapted to the Republic’s current and future security challenges.
‘This draft law is structured around three major axes, namely ‘strengthening the institutional framework of the PNC, accelerating the professionalization of the national police force, and improving dialogue between the police and the public’, has indicated the source. According to the same source, ‘this project, costing more than USD 2 billion, sets clear and measurable objectives, including ‘equipping units adequately to improve their operational effectiveness in the field, recruiting and training 90,000 new police officers over five years to rejuvenate and modernise the institution, retiring 10,000 officers between 2027 and 2028 in accordance with human resources management standards, and building and rehabilitating infrastructure to improve training and working conditions for police officers’.
A draft law to ‘strengthen the security system’ in DRC
The adoption by the National Assembly of the bill on ‘Police Programming’ will strengthen DRC’s security system, according to the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Interior and Security, during a meeting last week with elected representatives from the provinces of Kwango, Tshuapa, Haut-Lomami and Ituri. ‘The forthcoming adoption by the National Assembly of the draft law on police programming will strengthen the Congolese security system in the long term’, had promised Jacquemain Shabani to his hosts, who considered as a representative sample of the difficulties faced by the other provinces of DRC.
He has also committed to provide logistical support to improve the mobility of services and police interventions, particularly in the province of Tshuapa, with the forthcoming provision of anti-riot buses for the police and vehicles for territorial administrators.
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Interior has also announced that a process is underway to strengthen security capacities in the province of Kwango, in the south-west of DRC, following concerns raised by elected representatives, in particular the flagrant lack of personnel in the ranks of the national police force. It is therefore to all these problems that the government wishes to provide a lasting response through the National Police Programming Law.