After not being paid for seven years, state lawyers in the Republic of Congo have chosen to cease representing the government in court, according to their group.

During a conference in the capital Brazzaville, Jean-Prosper Mabassi, the chairman of an association of state attorneys, informed reporters that the government had not paid its lawyers since 2015.

The finance ministry had also ignored several appeals to address the matter, according to a statement read out by Mabassi.

State lawyers in the central African nation of about 5.5 million people will no longer represent the government in court in protest, the statement added.

It is not clear how much money the government owes its lawyers, but one attorney who declined to be named suggested that it ran to the equivalent of millions of dollars.

The Republic of Congo, often known as Congo-Brazzaville, is an oil-rich country with 54 percent of the population living in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.

A request for a response from the finance ministry was not returned.