UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Food Program's capacity to feed starving people in Burundi will be challenged from September to January, a UN spokesman warned Friday.

    The food agency has been feeding tens of thousands of refugees who fled into Burundi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with 1,000 tones of food aid delivered to the Congolese refugees since June, spokesman Fred Eckhard told a press briefing in New York.

    "But the extra load is hampering its capacity to cover food needs for Burundi from September to January," he said.

    The food agency is providing food to the wounded and other survivors of the Gatumba camp massacre, and it is ready to help refugees from the DRC when they are transferred to safer sites, Eckhard said.

    Burundi's ethnic Hutu rebel Forces Nationales de Liberation, the only group which has not joined the country's peace process, has claimed responsibility for last week's massacre, which left some 860 ethnic Tutsi dead. Enditem