Nobel laureate addresses turmoil
Publish date: 02 December 2019
Issue Number: 852
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: DRC
Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege has called for ‘a robust mandate’ for UN troops to enable them to use weapons in self-defence. This follows the deaths of 19 people in a rebel attack in Oicha last week. The latest attack was blamed on the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces rebels. This brings the total number of civilians killed since 5 November 5 to 94, according to sources close to the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission (Monusco). Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, told Deutsche Welle that ‘violence can only result in more violence’. ‘The big problem in Congo is that everyone wants to find scapegoats. But we know who the real perpetrators are, and I think that at some point justice must be done. A tribunal could be established to determine who did what,' he said.