Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad

The Nobel Committee received more than 300 nominations for this year's Peace Prize. The award, worth more than a million dollars, has been given to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad.

At a ceremony in the Nobel Institute on Friday, Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad were named the Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 2018 for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

Congolese Doctor Denis Mukwege is a gynecologist who founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where he specializes in the treatment of women who have been gang-raped by rebel forces.

Nadia Murad Basee Taha is a Yazidi Kurdish human rights activist from Iraq. Since September 2016 she has been the first UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. The 25-year-old Murad is the second-youngest laureate ever. Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was 17 when she was named laureate in 2014 with Kailash Satyarthi.

The Nobel committee received nominations for 216 individuals and 115 organizations for this year's peace prize, one of five Nobel Prizes established through the will of Swedish industrialist and arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel in 1895.

The 2018 prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor (€880,000 or $1.01 million).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated both "splendid prize-winners," with her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, saying that Mukwege and Murad stood for a "cry for humanity." He said the German government had the greatest respect for the work of the two laureates.

Ahead of the announcement

Ahead of the announcement at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, bookmakers had the leaders of North and South Korea as odd-on favorites for the prize after their three summits aiming to improve relations between the two states, still officially at war.

UK betting company Ladbrokes put US President Donald Trump second in the betting with former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont in third.

"After historic talks the Korean leaders are the overwhelming favorites to be announced as the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winners, although Donald Trump is also fancied by some punters to land the accolade for his role in bringing the two together," Ladbrokes Jessica Bridge said on the company's website.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was joint-fifth in the betting at 16/1 — the same odds as Pope Francis.

Last year's winner was the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

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