Nobel Peace Prize 2018: Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad, Congo's Dr Mukwege declared winners

Nobel Peace Prize 2018: They have been awarded for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

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Oslo: Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in fighting sexual violence in conflicts around the world. The pair won the award for their "efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war," Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in unveiling the winners in Oslo. Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, also said that the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize is intended to send the message that “women, who constitute half of the population, are used as a weapons of war, and they need protection, and the perpetrators have to be held responsible and prosecuted for their actions.” Congolese doctor Mukwege has been a critic of the Congolese government and has treated victims of sexual violence. Murad is a Yazidi who was a captive of the Islamic State group. She is one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the IS army. Both the winners had put their personal security at stake as activists on the issue.