Nobel laureates in peace, science and economics to receive awards

Congolese physician Denis Mukwege and Yezidi activist Nadia Murad were set to accept the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony on Monday.

The two laureates were praised by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for "their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."

Mukwege, 63, spent much of his adult life helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, treating thousands of patients and advocating on their behalf. He has criticized armed groups, political leaders in Congo and the international community for failing to act on mass rapes.

Murad, 25, is a member of Iraq's Yezidi religious minority who survived sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State extremist group.

She has spoken out against the abuses perpetuated by Islamic State group members against herself and thousands of other Yezidi girls and women.

The peace prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

In accordance with Nobel's will, the peace prize is handed out in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

Later Monday, the recipients of the Nobel prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and economics are to receive their awards in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

The Swedish Academy announced in May it would not award the Nobel Prize in literature this year after the body was embroiled in a sex scandal and alleged breaches of conflict-of-interest rules that resulted in a deep rift between its members.

Each prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor (1 million dollars).

The award ceremonies are traditionally held on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.