The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to campaigners against rape in warfare Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege.   

Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Nobel committee chair, said the pair were "crucial" in fighting the crimes.

Ms Murad is a Yazidi woman who was tortured and raped by Islamic State militants. Mr Mukwege is a Congolese gynaecologist who has treated victims.
Some 331 individuals and organisations were nominated for the prestigious peace award this year.

The winners announced in Oslo on Friday won the award for their "efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war," Ms Reiss-Andersen said

Mr Mukwege and his colleagues in DR Congo are said to have treated about 30,000 rape victims, developing great expertise in the treatment of serious sexual injuries, many in instances of war.

Ms Murad became the face of a campaign to free the Yazidi people and stop human trafficking after escaping IS in November 2014.

Earlier this week 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.

BBC Online

BDST: 1532 HRS, OCT 5, 2018
AH