When Dr Denis Mukwege founded the Panzi hospital in the DRC in 1999, all he wanted to do was treat survivors of violence and sexual abuse. But when an attempt was made on his life in 2012 forcing him into exile, he discovered that the circumstances surrounding his work were bigger than him. Having saved about 40,000 women through sheer doggedness and hard work, a documentary detailing his life story and experiences has been banned by the Congolese government, raising questions as how much the government appreciates his achievements.

Despite promises by the Congolese authorities to approve the movie, Lambert Mende, the Media Minister refused to. “I have decided not to approve this film,” he said. “There is a clear intent to harm and sully the image of our army and no country in the world could tolerate it. That is why we have banned the showing of the film here.” Military leaders have also objected to the film as being slanderous.

The ban has sparked outrage and the filmmakers have accused the government of attempting to silence the debate about sexual violence. Aptly titled “The Man who Mends Women”, the documentary follows Mukwege’s efforts to repair the physical and psychological injuries of the victims of sexual violence by armed forces and militia groups in eastern DRC.

For almost a decade now, the Congolese government has been under intense heat for doing nothing to stop the sexual violence being perpetrated by its army and local militia. Now, it seems Congo has joined the train with countries like Egypt and Ethiopia in stifling the media and the social consciousness it provides. As the Belgian filmmaker stated, “the banning of the scheduled screening of this film is a way of gagging Mukwege … and the voice of the victims of these wars and tragedies that the country has lived through for 20 years.”

A three-time nominee for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, Mukwege became the world’s leading expert on reconstructive surgeries for rape victims. In a region critically lacking basic healthcare, Dr Mukwege worked long hours in his hospital – 18 hours per day – performing up to 10 surgeries daily on women who have been victims of gang wartime rape. Since the Second Congo War ended, the country has been plagued by instability as dozens of armed groups compete for its vast natural resources. Large scale sexual assaults by militias have been a regular occurrence, with several high-level perpetrators being convicted for it.

In 2012, Dr Mukwege gave a speech at the United Nations where he expressed that he thinks rape “has little to do with sex and much more with power through a sort of terrorism”. He criticised the DRC government for granting impunity to mass rape and not doing enough to stop the violence against women. This is not an unfounded statement as a United Nations representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict dubbed the DRC the “rape capital of the world”. In 2011, a report claimed that around 48 women were raped every hour in the country.

Mukwege won the Sakharov Prize, Europe’s top human rights award last October. In 2014, Mukwege was awarded the European Union‘s Sakharov Prize and in 2013, he received his first of three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. On May 28, 2015, Dr. Mukwege was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Harvard University.

The film, co-financed by Belgium’s Foreign Affairs ministry and the International Organisation of La Francophonie, was scheduled to be screened in the capital, Kinshasa, next week and Bukavu the following week before the ban was placed.