This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
Published on June 11, 2020
Renowned Congolese medic Dr. Denis Mukwege has resigned from the country's Covid-19 response team, citing lack of government facilitation and inadequate testing facilities.
Dr. Mukwege, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2018, expressed frustration with the team's work in a resignation note, stating that the lack of laboratories for testing had hindered their efforts.
He also pointed out that the team had been waiting for over two weeks to receive results of samples sent to the national biomedical research institute in Kinshasa, which he described as a 'major handicap' for their strategy.
Dr. Mukwege's resignation comes as the Democratic Republic of Congo struggles to contain the spread of the virus, with 96 deaths and 4,390 positive cases recorded so far.
Despite his resignation, Dr. Mukwege has pledged to continue providing intellectual contributions to the fight against the pandemic in the province of South Kivu.
