DR Congo’s Nobel peace prize laureate Denis Mukwege on Sunday announced the October 31 launch of a “World Fund” to compensate victims of sexual violence during armed conflict.
Mukwege, who has been campaigning for such a fund since 2010, made the announcement in a statement from Bukavu, in eastern DR Congo, issued by his Panzi Foundation, which is named after the hospital he runs there.
“We will continue to seek justice throughout the world for the victims, tracing a redline against impunity,” wrote Mukwege. Mukwege was the joint winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping victims of sexual violence committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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He shared the 2018 award with Nadia Murad, the activist from Iraq’s Yazidi minority who campaigns for the thousands of women and girls abducted, like herself, by the Islamic State group in 2014.
In his statement, Mukwege said he hoped to be able to extend the treatment programme developed at Panzi Hospital to other countries hit by conflicts, such as the Central African Republic, Burundi and Iraq.
Mukwege said 20 years after the creation of Panzi hospital, they had treated more than 55,000 victims of sexual violence.
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