A doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo who treats women raped by combatants in the war-torn country has been named "African of the Year".

Denis Mukwege, 53, who runs a clinic in Bukavu, has said all sides have "declared women their common enemy".

He says his award from the Nigerian Daily Trust paper of $20,000 (£13,700) will be used to fund a centre to help rape victims rejoin society.

His clinic receives an average of 10 new patients every day.

Women in DR Congo are often raped and subjected to terrible violence by armed men as part of the decade-old conflict.

The Panzi hospital helps women with the physical and psychological injuries after being attacked.

It also provides help for women who have contracted HIV/Aids from their attackers.

A third of patents undergo major surgery.

 

Appalled

This is the first African of the Year Award, given by Nigerian newspaper the Daily Trust.

"I am pleased to accept this award if it will highlight the situation of women in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo," Dr Mukwege told the BBC French service after accepting the award at a ceremony in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

The head of the selection panel was Salim Ahmed Salim, former prime minister of Tanzania and former general secretary of the Organisation of African Unity.

"This is a person who has been involved in the protection of women under difficult circumstances, often at the risk of his own life," Mr Salim told the BBC.

Earlier this month Dr Mukwege was awarded the Olof Palme prize, awarded for outstanding achievement in promoting peace.

As a child Dr Mukwege would accompany his father, a Pentecostal minister, on his visits to hospital to pray for patients.

He decided he wanted to become a doctor to help people with more than just prayer.

While working at a hospital he was appalled by the number of women who were dying in childbirth.

He went to France to study gynaecology, and returned to set up a clinic in Lemera, South Kivu in the east of the country.

The hospital was destroyed in 1996, during the civil war.

Almost as soon as a new clinic in Bukavu opened, it became obvious to Dr Mukwege there was a special need for a clinic that dealt with victims of sexual violence.

 

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Congolese doctor wins Olof Palme Prize for rape victim work

 

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege on Thursday won the 2008 Olof Palme Prize for his work to help women victims of rape and war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, organisers said.

"His work provides an outstanding example of what courage, persistency and enduring hope may accomplish for human rights and dignity in times when these values seen the most distant," the Olof Palme Memorial Fund said in a statement.

Mukwege's Panzi Hospital, in the war-torn east of Congo, "serves peace, understanding and solidarity in a way worthy of imitation through the work with the women who are the most exposed victims of this conflict."

Congolese non-governmental organisations have accused all sides in the inter-ethnic conflicts that have raged in the region for a decade of using "systematic rape" against women as a war crime.

Mukwege, 53, founded his hospital in Bukavu in Sud-Kivu province after noting how many of his patients sustained serious injuries or contracted diseases after being raped.

Today, the centre receives around 10 women rape victims each day, with more than a quarter of the patients requiring surgery after their ordeal.

The Olof Palme award for outstanding achievement, aimed at promoting peace and disarmament and combat racism and xenophobia, was created in memory of a popular Swedish prime minister who was gunned down by a lone attacker in February 1986, shortly after leaving a Stockholm cinema.

Mukwege will receive his award, consisting of a diploma and 75,000 dollars (55,000 euros) at a ceremony at the Swedish parliament on January 30.

Iranian feminist and journalist Parvin Ardalan won the 2007 prize, while other past winners include former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Myanmar's imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former Czech president Vaclav Havel.