A priest who saved 1,500 Muslims from slaughter in the Central African Republic has been shortlisted for a new $1 million peace prize. Fr Bernard Kinvi, of the Order of St Camillus, provided shelter for those fleeing the Anti-balaka militia at his mission hospital in Bossemptele for several months. He then helped them escape on lorries across the border into Cameroon. Fr Kinvi is one of four people shortlisted for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, given to “individuals who put themselves at risk to enable others to survive”. The prize will be presented by the actor George Clooney at a ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, next month. The other finalists are Dr Tom Catena, the sole surgeon for 750,000 people in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, who said his work is inspired by St Francis of Assisi; Marguerite Barankitse, who saved thousands of lives and cared for orphans and refugees during the civil war in Burundi; and Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the only non-Catholic on the shortlist, who has worked to end bonded labour in Pakistan. The prize was created by an initiative called 100 Lives and aims to honour those who saved Armenians during the 1915 genocide. The winner will be given $100,000 and will be able to nominate a charity to receive $1 million. Vartan Gregorian, a prize committee member, said the prize was intended to “support the unsung heroes who ... stand up to oppression and injustice”. “One hundred years ago, strangers stood up against persecution on behalf of our ancestors, and today we thank them by recognising those who act in the same spirit in the face of modern atrocities,” he said.