Iraq's government on Thursday sealed a partnership with a Nobel-prize winning gynaecologist's clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo on caring for victims of sexual violence, an AFP journalist said.

Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege -- who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 -- has spent more than 20 years caring for victims of rape used as a weapon of war at his Panzi clinic in eastern DRC.

The mineral-rich Great Lakes region has been wracked by violence since fighting broke out between armed groups there in the 1990s.

Mukwege's clinic in Panzi, on the outskirts of Bukavu city in South Kivu province, and the Iraqi delegation agreed to develop exchange visits between them, said Sandra Orlovic, the representative in Iraq of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

"This holistic approach of (the) Panzi model in treating survivors is recognised across the globe and valued as the best possible model of care of survivors of sexual violence," she said.

The care provided at the Panzi hospital combines medical, psychological and legal aspects, as well as the socio-economic reintegration of victims.

Orlovic was accompanying an Iraqi government delegation, including about 10 officials from the ministries of health, social affairs, justice and women's rights, who arrived in Panzi on Monday.

"Several countries have asked us about this approach, including the Central African Republic, Colombia, Guinea and Iraq," said Etienne Cikuru of the Panzi Foundation.

Mukwege was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 with Iraqi activist Nadia Murad, a former slave of Islamic State jihadists, who has become the standard-bearer for the persecuted Yazidi minority to which she belongs.

"There are up to 4,000 survivors of sexual slavery, another sort of sexual violence committed by Islamic State against these minority communities," said Orlovic.