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Jeffrey Gettleman was the East Africa bureau chief for East Africa from 2006 to 2017.
Dr. Denis Mukwege, who received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, is a tall man with a square face.
The first time I met him, more than 10 years ago, he was coming out of the operating room, still dressed in his scrubs. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked exhausted.
Raiding rebels had just entered his eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and attacked the villages. Hundreds of wounded were somehow returned to the hospital, ran Dr. Mukwege. As a gynecologist, her specialty was repairing women who had been raped with extreme violence.
He led us down a long corridor, under ceiling fans that were not working. Countless women have clogged the hallways, leaning against the walls and holding colostomy bags, lying in helpless beds, sitting on the ground in puddles of urine, their reproductive and digestive systems being torn apart. This is the horror Dr. Mukwege faces every day.
Several years ago, United Nations officials described Congo as the world capital of rape. What was particularly disturbing was the blazing brutality of the rapes that have eviscerated the bowels of many women.
"When the victims arrive, you can see the injury where it happened," said Dr. Mukwege. "In Bunyakiri, they burn the bottom of the women. In Fizi-Baraka, they are affected to the genitals. In Shabunda, they are bayonets. "
"Some of these girls whose bowels have been destroyed are so young that they do not understand what happened to them," he said. "Why would you rape a 3-year-old?"
He spoke almost in a whisper, as he knew he would face bigger battles and would need to keep all his energy – or maybe he had more.
But Dr. Mukwege, who was doing about 10 rescue operations a day in his hospital near the front line, gave off a dim but perceptible inner glow, a feeling of calm, an aura of total serenity.
There was something extremely empathic about the way his eyes were on people. This seemed to stem from the knowledge that he was doing just about everything humanly possible to help others.
Over the years, his profile has developed. He has always performed countless rescue operations, but he has also started speaking.
He has become a champion of the millions of women who are victims of violence in his country. Many factors had contributed to countering them: the dramatic decay within the government, corruption and brutality in the armed forces, the proliferation of firearms, the fragmentation of rebel groups and the low status of women and girls in the armed forces. Congolese society.
He blamed the rebels for their inhumanity and the men of the Congolese government for observing the impassive brutality. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to kill him. One night in 2012, an armed man broke into his house and nearly shot him.
This award may give him a bit more protection, but he will not change the facts on the ground. Large parts of Congo are still incredibly violent. The government is going from crisis to crisis. Women continue to be prey.
At the end of this first interview, Dr. Mukwege came out to say goodbye. He was polite, humble and caring. He watched the green hills.
"There were a lot of gorillas inside," he said. "But now they have been replaced by more wild beasts."
Jeffrey Gettleman wrote about Denis Mukwege in his memoirs, Love, Africa
