DENIS MUKWEGE
Dr. Mukwege was in surgery — his second of the day — at the hospital he founded in 1999 in Congo’s Bukavu region when the announcement came Friday that he had won the prestigious prize. He learned of it because he heard colleagues and patients crying at the news.
After the announcement, mobile phone footage showed a smiling Mukwege jostled by dancing, ululating medical colleagues in scrubs in the hospital’s courtyard.
The 63-year-old gynecological surgeon said for nearly 20 years he has witnessed war crimes “against women, teenage girls, small girls, babies.”
“Dear survivors around the world, I want to tell you that through this prize the world is listening to you and refuses indifference,” he said. “We hope that the world will no longer delay taking action in your favour, with force and determination, because the survival of humanity depends on you. It’s you women who carry humanity.”
Mukwege is the son of a preacher who travelled around eastern Congo — often called the rape capital of the world — in the years before war convulsed the region, taking millions of lives. But even before the wars, health care at the time was grim. Horrified by the amount of childbirth complications his father’s parishioners asked him to pray over, Mukwege became determined to enter the medical field, eventually travelling to France to specialize in gynecology.
He founded Panzi Hospital in 1999, just as eastern Congo was overtaken by a new wave of violence. Militias from Congo, Rwanda and Uganda tore across eastern Congo for the better part of a decade, raping and pillaging.
Panzi Hospital was where tens of thousands of rape victims went for treatment, some showing up naked, others having already been to the hospital after previous rapes. Mukwege treated countless victims, often working 18-hour days. He only stopped briefly after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt and sought refuge in France.
Mukwege has been a staunch critic of Congo’s government, which he has called out for impunity and human rights abuses.
“The importance of Dr. Mukwege’s enduring, dedicated and selfless efforts in this field cannot be overstated. He has repeatedly condemned impunity for mass rape and criticized the Congolese government and other countries for not doing enough to stop the use of sexual violence against women as a strategy and weapon of war,” the Nobel committee said.