COTABATO CITY, Philippines -- An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday the renewed conflict in Mindanao has been extremely violent and it was stepping up assistance to displaced civilians whose numbers he estimated at up to half a million.

"Mindanao has suffered its worst fighting since 2003," Dominik Stillhart, ICRC deputy director for operations, said in a news conference Saturday. He flew in recently from Geneva.

He said up to half a million people have been affected by the hostilities and tens of thousands of them had to flee their homes in Mindanao.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported that over 200,000 people were displaced by the fighting in at least three Mindanao provinces.

Saying the Mindanao conflict was extremely violent, Stillhart said the ICRC was stepping up its relief operations to internally displaced people in the provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte, site of the sporadic fighting between government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.

"I visited evacuation sites and seeing the deteriorating situation of the IDPs (internally displaced people), we see it fitting to step up our aid," said Stillhart, who visited the village of Libungan Torreta in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato on Friday.

"We could see in their eyes these people have been displaced many times over," Stillhart said.

Bai Fatima Sinsuat, local Red Cross official, said the number of people working in the Red Cross relief operations center has increased as more evacuation areas need assistance.

Perry Proellochs, in charge of ICRC relief operations for Central Mindanao, said the number of their field personnel has also ballooned to about 50 from only five or six before the armed conflict started in July.

"There were so many people that need humanitarian aid and that's our main concern, their health, hygiene and food," he said.