Nobel laureate Mukwege quits DR Congo Covid-19 team, blasts govt response

Nobel winner Denis Mukwege on Wednesday said he had resigned as head of a coronavirus taskforce in an eastern province of DR Congo, blaming organisational problems, outpaced strategy and slow testing. Mukwege, a DR Congo gynaecologist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war, was appointed on March 30 to lead a committee in South Kivu province. Panzi Hospital, where Mukwege treats abused women, is also located in the province. In a statement, he said there had been 'weaknesses in organisation and clarity between the various teams in charge of the response to the pandemic in South Kivu.' 'We are at the start of an exponential... curve (in infections) and we can no longer apply a strategy that would be purely preventive,' Mukwege said.