GENEVA – The U.N. refugee agency says at least 5,000 people have fled violence in northeastern Congo and sought shelter in neighboring Sudan over the last two weeks.

A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says the Congolese fled their villages near the Sudanese border. He says this was because of ferocious attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army from neighboring Uganda.

Spokesman Ron Redmond said Tuesday that around 150 Congolese continue to flee to the southern Sudan area of Yambio every day.

He says one man crossed the border after a weeklong journey by bicycle avoiding LRA roadblocks and ambushes. The man said his wife and daughter were abducted.

The LRA rebels have been involved in a brutal 21-year insurgency in northern Uganda.