Congolese Doctor Denis Mukwege Receives Sakharov Prize

Enlarge this image toggle caption Mike Theiler/Reuters/Landov Mike Theiler/Reuters/Landov

Congolese gynecological surgeon Denis Mukwege has won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded for his work treating thousands of women who have been victims of rape in his country.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said in a statement that Mukwege would receive the $65,000 award for "his fight for protection especially of women." Last year's winner, Malala Yousafzai, the teen who was shot by the Taliban for advocating education for girls, received the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.

Past winners of the prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, include the late South African leader Nelson Mandela and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"In many armed conflicts around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war," Schulz said in the statement. Mukwege, he said, "decided to help victims in his country" by "[treating] victims of sexual violence who have sustained serious injuries," at his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the border with Rwanda.

According to a United Nations report earlier this year, more than 3,600 women were raped in the DRC in the four years from January 2010 to December 2013.

The New York Times writes: