Nobel Peace Prize 2018 won by Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad

Nobel Peace Prize 2018 won by Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad

Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in fighting sexual violence in conflicts around the world.

The pair won the award for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,” Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in unveiling the winners in Oslo. “A more peaceful world can only be achieved if women and their fundamental rights and security are recognised and protected in war,” she said.

“Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad have both put their personal security at risk by courageously combating war crimes and seeking justice for the victims,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

Denis Mukwege, 63, was recognised for two decades of work to help women recover from the violence and trauma of sexual abuse and rape in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Women, children and even babies just a few months old, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of victims of rape at Panzi hospital which he founded in 1999 in South Kivu.

Known as “Doctor Miracle”, he is an outspoken critic of the abuse of women during war who has described rape as “a weapon of mass destruction.”

Alongside Mukwege, the committee honoured Nadia Murad, a 25-year-old Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community who in 2014 was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists and endured three months as a sex slave before managing to escape.

She was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe in 2016 and called for an international court to judge crimes committed by IS in her acceptance speech in Strasbourg.

Ms Murad, the first Iraqi to win the award, was named the UN’s first goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking in 2016 at age 23.

She has published a New York Times bestselling memoir titled “The Last Girl.”

Murad becomes the 17th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and is its second-youngest recipient after Malala Yousafzai.