An army of humanitarian organizations has been unable to end years of recurring hunger in conflict-torn Congo. Now a Colombia-based research group says it may have found another way to fill hungry bellies: with guinea pigs. The small rodents could provide war-battered villages with “a much-needed source of protein and micro-nutrients in a country with some of the highest incidences of malnutrition the world,” according to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Congo’s hilly east has been plagued by violent turmoil since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide spilled war across the border. It’s not known how or when guinea pigs - native to South America - arrived in Congo, but CIAT researchers discovered them last year being kept as “micro-livestock” in the nation’s hard-hit North and South Kivu provinces. (AP)
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