200,000 displaced in DR Congo fighting

KIVU, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo has displaced 200,000 people in the past two months, the United Nations says.

Those figures are twice as many as previously reported as the eastern sectors of the African nation are becoming engulfed in fighting between government troops and militias loyal to renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda, the BBC reported.

Since 2007, as many as 2 million people have fled from the Congo's Kivu area, U.N. officials say, and the massive movement of people has resulted in widespread malnourishment and starvation.

"The capacity of the World Food Program and other humanitarian organizations is stretched to the limit (and) the situation has begun to deteriorate in the last (few) weeks," Charles Vincent of the U.N. World Food Program told the BBC.

Vincent added that abuse of women also is a grave concern in the Congo, saying that half of the rapes in the country are committed in Kivu.