Kinshasa — A famed Congolese medic who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 has resigned from the country's team formed to fight Covid-19.

Dr Denis Mukwege said he was quitting a special Commission for fighting Covid-19 in South Kivu, citing lack of facilitation from the government.

In a resignation note publicised on Wednesday, Dr Mukwege said the lack of laboratories for testing for the virus had frustrated the team's work.

His resignation from the special Health Commission could strike a blow to the entire national response team led by Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, another famed medical researcher in the Congo.

In the DRC, Dr Mukwege is famed for his surgeries to repair damage inflicted on sexually violated women during the Congolese civil war.