Last week`s fighting in the east of the Democratic of Congo displaced up to 100,000 civilians, of whom 60 percent were children, the United Nations Children`s Fund said Monday.

`Up to 100,000 people, around 60 percent of which are children, have fled their homes due to heavy fighting between belligerent armed groups in North Kivu last week,` said UNICEF in a statement detailing the situation there.

`Around 250,000 people are now believed to have been displaced in the last two months bringing the total number of internally displaced to around 1,000,000, 20 percent of the entire North Kivu population,` the statement added.

The eastern region of Nord-Kivu has been the focus of last week`s fighting between government troops and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) led by Laurent Nkunda.

Nkunda`s forces made significant gains in the northern part of the region, where aid workers delivering aid to rebel-held territory around Rutshuru found camps for displaced people emptied and razed to the ground.

The UN refugee agency said on Friday they had `credible reports` that rebel soldiers had looted and burned the camps, causing 50,000 people to flee.

Also Friday, the UN`s top human rights official Navi Pillay condemned government troops for having gone on a rampage of looting, killing and rape in the regional capital of Goma after having been routed by rebel forces.