KINSHASA, 4 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Businessmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have collected 120 tons of maize flour and other food for 2.5 million hungry people in Niger, a high ranking government official said on Thursday.

"Almost fifty tons have already arrived there and I will be going to give the people of Niger a message of support," Antoine Ghando, a spokesman for the office of President Joeseph Kabila, said on Thursday in Kinshasa, the capital, before flying to Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Forty tons of the food was airlifted by the Belgium government while the rest is to be transported by the DRC government in three days.