Nobel prize winner runs for DRC presidential elections

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 Oct 2023 19:40

Denis Mukwege has announced his intention to run for the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo to a group of supporters in Kinshasa.

The Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege gives his speech during the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo Town Hall, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2018. (AP)

Denis Mukwege, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning gynecologist, is running for the presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The physician who won the award in 2018 said that he will run for his country's upcoming presidential election in December.

Mukwege received the prestigious award for his two-decade-long fight against sexual violence and announced his decision to a crowd of his supporters at a conference center in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC.

The 68-year-old gynecologist has been nicknamed the "man who repairs women", and has treated hundreds of war rape victims at the Panzi Hospital, which he founded in the easter DRC in 1999.

The Nobel prize winner will run against President Felix Tshisekedi whose first term in office was plagued by economic insecurity, epidemics, and continued violence, as well as opposition leader Martin Fayulu who came second in the 2018 vote.

The DRC has seen infighting between local communities over disputed land. The Teke community claims exclusive rights over areas in Mai-Ndombe province sparking conflict with other communities in June 2022. Fighting expanded to neighboring provinces, including Kwango, Kwilu, and Kinshasa.

The UN believes that around 3,000 people were murdered in the war between June 2022 and July 2023. The DRC government, however, sets the death toll at 180, a statistic that has remained constant since October 2022.