DRC: the citizen movement La Lucha celebrates ten years of existence and struggle

Lucha activists in the funeral procession of Congolese pro-democracy activist Luc Nkulula on June 14, 2018, in Goma.

Alain WANDIMOYI / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

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The citizen movement La Lucha marked its tenth anniversary on Sunday 1 May.

Born in 2012 in Goma, in the east of the DRC, on the initiative of a handful of young people, Lucha has become in ten years an actor in the political life of the country and a school of activism for young people.

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We are at the beginning of 2012, Joseph Kabila was re-elected a few months earlier.

In Goma, the roads are rutted, basic social services failing, prospects are lacking and armed groups are rampant in the region.

Some students or young graduates, revolted by this situation, decide to carry out a non-violent and visible action, in the street, to hold their leaders accountable.

Makeshift banners, Congolese flags and pieces of white fabric... To the rhythm of demonstrations, meetings and arrests, The Fight for Change (Lucha) is structured, spreads through social networks, rallies new young people to its cause and made heard as far as Kinshasa.

Joseph Kabila will meet representatives of the movement in 2016. They will tell him to his face that he must leave at the end of his mandate.

The elections will be delayed until 2018. That year, Luc Nkulula, a historic figure in the movement, was burned to death in a fire in his house in Goma.

Justice will close the investigation without further action.

To date, La Lucha considers that four of its activists have died for their commitment to democracy.

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“A just and noble cause”

For its non-violent action in favor of peace and good governance, the Congolese movement Lucha has received several awards.

Bienvenu Matumo, who joined the movement in 2013 in Goma, is proud to serve a cause he describes as “ 

 ” and “ 

 ”.

For him, Lucha is a civic school with a cell dedicated to Luchology.

Ten years later, we have succeeded in creating a dynamic of action and what is special is that it is not Lucha who goes to young people.

It is the young people who come to Lucha.

They recognize themselves in our ideas, in our actions.

Welcome Matumo, from the Lucha movement, about Luchology.

Amelie Tulet

For the next elections, scheduled for 2023, Lucha warns of a necessary consensus around bodies, such as the Ceni, so that future results are accepted by all.

As for the east of the DRC, Lucha is concerned about the persistence of the state of siege and also warns that it will oppose any impunity for the perpetrators of crimes against the inhabitants, a reference to the negotiations started with armed groups.

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