Nobel prize winner criticises western ‘neglect’ and urges action over DRC violence

Dr Denis Mukwege has called on Britain and other European countries to settle on a ‘coherent’ policy to tackle escalating tensions in the DRC. Photograph: Belga News Agency/Alamy

The west must ditch its “double standards” and act decisively against the violence worsening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Dr Denis Mukwege, the Nobel prize-winning surgeon, has said.

In a stinging criticism of the international community’s “negligence”, Mukwege urged Britain and its allies to impose sanctions on neighbouring Rwanda to help ease the growing crisis in the east of the country.