OSLO, Norway (AP) — One of the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize says the attention the prize has drawn to sexual violence against women in war zones must be followed by action against the abuses.
Dr. Denis Mukwege spoke Sunday at a news conference with Nadia Murad of Iraq, with whom he shared the 9-million Swedish kronor ($1 million) prize. Mukwege was honored for his work helping sexually abused women at the hospital he founded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Murad, a Yazidi, won for her advocacy for sex abuse victims after being kidnapped and raped by Islamic State militants.
Mukwege says "what we see during armed conflicts is that women's bodies become battlefields and this cannot be acceptable during our time." He says "we cannot only denounce it, we now need to act."
