Content_paragraphs:  The number of operational first-instance and appellate courts and deployed
  
  judicial personnel remained at 16 and 129 (including 27 women), respectively. The
  
  Bangui Court of Appeal, supported by MINUSCA and UNDP, heard 16 criminal cases
  
  during its October session, adjudicating in 13 of the cases, including 3 pertaining to
  
  armed groups and 3 involving sexual and gender-based violence. A total of 18
  
  individuals, including 1 woman, were convicted. On 7 January, the Court sentenced
  
  an individual to 15 years of forced labour for the murder of a United Nations police
  
  officer in June 2016. On 7 February, the Court sentenced 28 anti-balaka associates
  
  accused of killing civilians and 10 peacekeepers in the Bangassou area in May 2017,
  
  their sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment and forced labour.