Patrick Bigabo
Congolese doctor and Nobel Prize winner Denis Mukwege has begun mobilising Congolese to vote for him in the 2023 presidential elections.
He made the announcement during an international conference for peace in Charleroi. Mukwege stated that change must come from the Congolese themselves.
The conference, which calls for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was held on the site of the Bois du Cazier in Charleroi in front of an audience of Belgian and Congolese experts, as well as members of the diaspora.
He explained that Congo has been at war for 30 years, which has “led to a major humanitarian crisis, with the number of deaths, abused women and refugees in the millions”.
Mukwege is the founder of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, which treats women who have been victims of sexual violence in eastern DRC. He has been criticising Kinshasa regime for a failed diplomacy and condemning the outsourcing of security by “destabilising” states.
He has challenged Kinshasa government to work on the reforming the Congolese military to make it professional and operational.
According to him, President Felix Tshisekedi’s “diplomacy” is contributing to “worsening instability” in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
In October 2012, Mukwege escaped an assassination attempt when armed men entered his home and fired several bullets. His bodyguard was killed. After a short exile in Europe, he returned to DRC in January 2013. UN peacekeepers were taking care of his safety before withdrawing in May 2020. – Taarifa
