Denis Mukwege

Denis Mukwege (/mʊkˈweɪɡi/; born 1 March 1955) is a Congolese humanitarian, gynecologist and Pentecostal pastor. He founded and works in Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been raped. In 2018, Mukwege and Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".

Mukwege has treated thousands of women who were victims of rape as a weapon of war since the Second Congo War, some of them more than once, performing up to ten operations a day during his 17-hour working days. According to The Globe and Mail, Mukwege is "likely the world's leading expert on repairing injuries of rape". In 2013, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his courageous work healing women survivors of war-time sexual violence and speaking up about its root causes."

Mukwege's continued demand for justice for the victims of the Congo conflicts has resulted in him receiving threats against his life and the Panzi hospital. He has received these death threats on social media platforms, which emerged from various sources including Mukwege's country of origin, the DRC, and neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. Reportedly, the threats have emerged following Mukwege's increasing calls for perpetrators who were named in a decade-old UN report, to be brought before an international tribunal. A previous assassination attempt was made on Mukwege's life in 2012, which resulted in him and his family leaving the country over concerns for their safety.

On 2 October 2023, Mukwege announced his candidacy for president in the 2023 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election. He ultimately came in sixth place in the official results, receiving 39,639 votes.

Born in Belgian Congo, today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mukwege is the third of nine children born to a Pentecostal minister and his wife. He almost died at birth due to an infection but was saved by the Swedish Pentecostal missionary and midwife Majken Bergman. Mukwege decided to study medicine after seeing the complications that women in the Congo experienced during childbirth who had no access to specialist healthcare, and he wanted to heal the sick people for whom his father prayed.

After graduating with a medical degree from the University of Burundi in 1983, Mukwege worked as a paediatrician in the rural Lemera Hospital near Bukavu. However, after seeing female patients who often suffered from pain, genital lesions, and obstetric fistulas after giving birth due to an absence of proper care, he decided to study gynaecology and obstetrics at the University of Angers, France, obtaining his masters and completing his medical residency in 1989. His education was mainly financed by the Swedish Pentecostal mission.

On 24 September 2015, Mukwege earned a PhD from Université libre de Bruxelles for his thesis on traumatic fistulas in the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

After completion of his studies in France (1989), Mukwege returned to work at the Lemera Hospital. During the Lemera massacre, which marked the commencement of the First Congo War, the Lemera Hospital was attacked, his patients and co-workers were killed and the hospital was ransacked. Dr. Mukwege fled to Bukavu where he founded the Panzi Hospital in 1999. Its construction was mainly financed by Swedish Christian aid organizations and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The Panzi Hospital has continued to enjoy support from the Swedish Pentecostal Mission's development cooperation organization PMU.