Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Two Campaigners Against Rape in War

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Two Campaigners Against Rape in War

Nadia Murad is a Yazidi woman who was tortured and raped by Islamic State militants and later became the face of a campaign to free the Yazidi people. Denis Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist who, along with his colleagues, has treated tens of thousands of victims, reports the BBC.

Some 331 individuals and organizations were nominated for the prestigious peace award this year.

Murad is an Iraqi who escaped sexual slavery by Isis while Mukwege has treated more than 50,000 survivors of the DRC conflict since 1999.

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Some had argued that President Donald Trump should be awarded the Prize for his role in moving the normalization between North and South Korea.

Other winners this year

The Nobel prize for physics was awarded to Donna Strickland, only the third woman winner of the award and the first in 55 years. The Canadian was announced along with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France.

The Nobel prize for medicine was awarded to two scientists - Professor James P Allison from the US and Professor Tasuku Honjo from Japan - who discovered how to fight cancer using the body's immune system.