UN peacekeepers have "failed" the victims of mass rape in eastern DR Congo, a senior UN official has said.
Atul Khare told the Security Council that the scale of systematic rape by armed rebels was far worse than feared.
He said that up to 500 women and children were now believed raped in recent weeks - more than double the previously reported figure.
He called for the prosecution of Rwandan and Congolese rebels who are blamed for many of the attacks.
"At the same time a concerted response from the government, from the international community is needed to maintain pressure on the perpetrators of these rapes and to bring them to justice," he told the BBC's World Today programme.
Mr Khare, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, was sent to DR Congo by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the attacks in July and August.
He reported to the Security Council that although 242 rapes had earlier been reported in and around Luvungi, a village not far from a UN peacekeepers' camp, 260 more rapes had come to light in the Uvira area and other regions of North and South Kivu.
Mr Khare said he had learned of 74 attacks in a village called Miki, in South Kivu. The victims included 21 children - all girls aged between seven and 15 - and six men.
All the women in another village, Kiluma, may have been systematically raped, he said.
"While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its national army and police force, clearly, we have also failed," he said.
"Our actions were not adequate, resulting in unacceptable brutalisation of the population of the villages in the area. We must do better".
BBC News
