Nobel Peace Prize-winner Dr Denis Mukwege has said he fears conflict will break out after this month’s elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo if they are not free and fair, Reuters news agency reports. The gynaecologist, who with the help of colleagues has treated tens of thousands of victims of rape, reportedly made the warning as he collected his collected his Nobel award on Monday.
“I am very worried that these elections will not be free, fair, credible and peaceful and that if there is massive fraud… supporters [of losing candidates] will not accept them,” Dr Mukwege is quoted by Reuters as saying in his speech in Oslo.
Reuters quotes Dr Mukwege as saying that worsening violence in eastern DR Congo, plus the election authorities’ struggle to meet key deadlines for vote preparation, “suggests [to him] that oppression is being prepared, at the very minimum, and it could be that a war against its own people is being prepared”.
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Dr Congo’s Dr Mukwege and Iraqi Yazidi activist Nadia Murad were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war”.
