Kinshasa, July 28th, 2025 (CPA).- The issue of one magistrate per 5,000 inhabitants was raised on Monday during a meeting between the acting Minister of Justice and the attorneys general of the Gombe and Matete Courts of Appeal in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. ‘This is an issue that I consider to be urgent, because, as you know, international standards recommend a ratio or occupancy rate of one magistrate per 5,000 inhabitants,’ said Samuel Mbemba, Acting Minister of Justice.
‘However, in the city of Kinshasa, and elsewhere in all the provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, we are very far from this target,’ he added. ‘The magistrates who have already been appointed and are being paid must work to their full capacity, and those appointed in 2025 must also start working soon, so that we can approach international standards in terms of the coverage rate of the population by magistrates,’ Samuel Mbemba added. He specified that this field visit took place in the two major courts of the capital. ‘That is the purpose of my visit today to the public prosecutor’s office at the Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal, after having been to the public prosecutor’s office at the Kinshasa-Matete Court of Appeal,’ he said.
These magistrates had been appointed by presidential decree in April 2023, following a competition organized by the High Council of the Judiciary. Despite their official appointment and, in some cases, their payment of salaries, several of them had still not been assigned to courts or installed in their positions. This situation sparked a series of sit-ins and protests in front of the Ministry of Justice, particularly between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, with the most recent one dating back to July 10th, 2025.
The magistrates concerned demanded the full execution of their appointment documents, denouncing unjustified ‘administrative unemployment’.