Dr Denis Mukwege, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and candidate in the December 20 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, organized his first major campaign meeting on Saturday in his hometown of Bukavu (east). Addressing a crowd of thousands of supporters gathered at Independence Square in South Kivu’s provincial capital, the 68-year-old gynecologist vowed to fight corruption and “end the war, end to famine” in the event of victory, noted an AFP journalist.
“Today, it’s normal to steal from Congo, it’s normal to corrupt,” denounced the candidate in a speech in Kiswahili. In 1999, Dr. Mukwege created the Panzi hospital in Bukavu. Designed to allow women to give birth properly, the center quickly became a “rape clinic” as Kivu descended into the second Congo war (1998-2003) and its mass rapes.
He denounces “corrupt and predatory practices”
In 2018, “the man who repairs women”, his nickname inherited from a documentary dedicated to him, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the Yazidi Nadia Murad, for their efforts to fight against ” the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The doctor, who has no political base and was slow to get started, finally announced his candidacy on October 2, denouncing “the corrupt and predatory practices” which keep the majority of Congolese in poverty.
During his meeting on Saturday, he pledged to “restore the Congolese their dignity, their rights”, criticizing in passing the dependence of the country of some 100 million inhabitants on foreign aid, including military aid. “On the international level, we will do everything to ensure that foreign armies leave Congolese soil. The Congolese must learn to take care of themselves in terms of security,” he said.
A plan to withdraw the peacekeepers
Violence by armed groups has lasted for almost 30 years in eastern DRC, which is experiencing a peak of crisis with the return on scene of an old rebellion (the M23), supported by neighboring Rwanda and which seized large parts of North Kivu. The government of outgoing President Félix Tshisekedi, 60 years old and candidate for re-election, has decided not to renew beyond December 8 the mandate of a regional force deployed in the east to fight against the M23.
At the same time, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), present in the DRC since 1999, declared on Wednesday that it had signed with the government a plan to withdraw its 14,000 peacekeepers deployed in the country, mainly in the east.