'3.9 million dead from war in DR Congo'

The estimate is extrapolated from a nationwide survey among 19,500 households.

The national mortality rate was found to be 2.1 deaths per 1,000 per month, 40 percent higher than other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, investigators said.

The war's death toll was estimated at 3.9 million people, from the outbreak of the conflict in 1998 to mid-2004, when the survey was carried out.

Casualties were significantly higher in DRC's violence-torn, resource-rich eastern provinces.

"Most deaths were from easily preventable and treatable illnesses rather than violence," according to the study, lead-authored by Richard Brennan of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in New York.

"The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis. To save lives, improvements in security and increased humanitarian assistance are urgently needed."

An IRC report issued in December said that more than 31,000 people were dying each month in the vast Central African nation due to conflict.

The former Belgian colony is attempting to emerge from successive conflicts which drew in a dozen countries at their height, with a still-fragile peace process leading to presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.

But violence continues in Ituri, Katanga and other parts of eastern DRC bordering Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, despite the presence of the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force.