Nobel Peace Prize Calls On Congolese Government To Quit

The Congolese doctor who was named the joint winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize has called on the Congolese government to leave power, describing the polls scheduled for December as a “parody of an election”.Dr Denis Mukwege, who was in surgery when he heard that he had won the prize for his treatment of 50,000 survivors of sexual violence, has been an outspoken critic of the Democratic Republic of the Congo president, Joseph Kabila, and his government. He told the Guardian that he held them responsible for not protecting women in the country.

“The Congolese people live with unheard-of violence. Unheard-of,” Mukwege said by phone from his hospital in Bukavu, in eastern DRC. “He [Kabila] is responsible for not putting an end to the violence. His role is to protect his people and their belongings. We see that 20 years after it came to power, this government does not protect women.”

Kabila refused to leave power when his mandate ended nearly two years ago and his anointed successor’s strongest competitor has been forbidden to run