Congo battle hampers refugee aid

Roads through villages have become ghost towns

Aid agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they are struggling to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by fighting.

The UN says it is hard to reach 300,000 people in the east who rely on food aid, while 150,000 remain out of reach.

Battles have resumed between the army and fighters loyal to a renegade general forcing more people to flee.

A BBC reporter says women have been arriving at a hospital with severely malnourished children in their arms.

Both the army and Gen Laurent Nkunda accuse the other of breaking a recent ceasefire.

Gen Nkunda says he is fighting to protect DR Congo's Tutsis minority.

The government has given the rebel general an ultimatum of 15 October to cease hostilities and integrate his forces into the army or face tough action.

But the former commander of UN forces in eastern DR Congo told the us that fighting Gen Nkunda and his men is not the solution to the problem.

"If you like it or not Nkunda is a factor in North Kivu and the factor of dealing and addressing the needs and legitimate demands of a minority is something you cannot ignore," Maj Gen Patrick Cammaerte told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"Unless the government of the DRC is willing to address the minority problem politically, and taking away doing that, the arguments of Mr Nkunda, there will be no solution."

The UN has 17,600 peacekeepers in DR Congo - the largest such force in the world, 4,300 of them in North Kivu alone.