Following the meeting held between President Kabila and representatives of LUCHA in Goma on 18 August 2016, Floribert Anzuluni, Coordinator of FILIMBI movement, issued a statement in which he expressed the opinion of his movement on the meeting.
Anzuluni underscored the “strong strategic divergence with LUCHA on the meeting” saying “we did not support it”.
He described the move as a tactical manoeuvre from the regime’s communication experts seeking “to manipulate and divide” the youth.
FILIMBI is another youth movement which, alongside LUCHA, is fighting for the respect of constitutional term-limitation.
The full statement is below.
1. Despite our FILIMBI/LUCHA) strong strategic divergence on the meeting that we did not support, we have no doubt on LUCHA’s commitment. On 19 September 2016 the presidential election must be organised, otherwise, the citizens, including LUCHA, will activate article 64 of the Constitution (editor’s note: Article 64 gives the right to any Congolese to defeat any individual or group of individuals who exercise power in violation of the provisions of the constitution).
2. As planned in their strategy, the “communication experts” of the regime are trying to manipulate and divide the opinion, chiefly the youth who are the majority and are not controlled. By using the team picture of the president Kabila and LUCHA representatives, the unvoiced objective is to deflect pressure from the respect of the Constitution and obviate the ineptness and/or complicity of President Kabila and his government in the infamous killings happening in Beni and which have claimed hundreds of lives over the past two years, including women and children. We have news for them: it is too late. By 19 December 2016 at the latest, President Kabila will need to step down peacefully or he will be forced to do so by the population, including the LUCAH, as per the Constitution.