Jeffrey Gettleman was the East Africa bureau chief of The New York Times from 2006 to 2017.

Dr. Denis Mukwege, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, is a large man with a squarish face.

The first time I met him, more than 10 years ago, he was emerging from the operating room, still wearing his scrubs. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked exhausted.

Marauding rebels had just swept into his area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and attacked the villages. Hundreds of wounded people had somehow made their way to the hospital Dr. Mukwege ran. As a gynecologist, his specialty had become repairing women who had been raped with extreme violence.

He led us down a long hallway, beneath ceiling fans that didn’t work. Countless women clogged the corridors, leaning against the walls and holding colostomy bags, lying listlessly in beds, sitting on the floor in pools of urine, their reproductive and digestive tracts ripped apart. This is the ongoing horror Dr. Mukwege faces day in and day out.