Norwegian Nobel Committee honors activists fighting sexual violence around the world

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and former Islamic State (IS) hostage and human rights activist Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

The Committee said Mukwege had been "the foremost, most unifying symbol both nationally and internationally of the struggle to end sexual violence in war and armed conflict".

Murad, a member of the Yazidi minority in Iraq, was captured by the IS and repeatedly raped and subjected to other abuses. The Committee said she showed "uncommon courage in recounted her own suffering".