By Katrina Manson
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Almost 90,000 people have fled fighting in eastern Congo in the past month, aid agencies said, underscoring a worsening security situation despite the official end of Congo's 1998-2003 war.
Conflicts between rebel groups, former militias and army troops simmer in Democratic Republic of Congo, and more than 1.9 million people are still displaced, up from 1.6 million in 2009.
"The displaced are in need of protection, food, water, shelters, medicine and non-food items," OCHA, the United Nations aid coordination body, said in a statement on Friday.
The aid agency said nearly 90,000 people have fled their homes in Beni territory in the north of Congo's North Kivu province in the past month as a result of the army launching an attack on Islamic Ugandan rebels.
Uganda's Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU), formed in 1996 and named on the U.S. Terrorist Exclusion List, has settled in Congo over the past few years, with their numbers thought to be about 600.
Humanitarian agencies said chaos and disorder prevented them from fully accessing the affected areas, and that many people who have fled are sheltering in schools and churches.
Six civilians have been killed, dozens injured and villages looted, OCHA added.
General Vainquer Mayala, in charge of Congo's national army in North Kivu, said his soldiers had killed 26 and captured 11 rebels.
Reuters Africa
