Tens of thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have fled to neighboring Uganda to escape renewed violence in the eastern Congo.

Over 60,000 refugees have crossed into Uganda since Thursday night to escape clashes between the Congolese army and a group of Ugandan rebels at a border town, the Uganda Red Cross (URC) said on Sunday.

URC spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde stated that the aid group has already registered 41,000 Congolese refugees and that 20,000 more are yet to go through the registration process.

"Currently we are looking at about 65,000 people," she added.

The Allied Democratic Forces attacked Kamango in North Kivu province on Thursday, Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said on Friday.

"We have beefed up security along the common border to avoid a spillover of the fighting," Ankunda stated.

The Congolese army managed to push the rebels out of the town, which is located close to the Ugandan border, he added.

Streams of refugees, carrying their belongings piled on their heads, including rolled up mattresses, cooking pots, and chickens, have entered Uganda's Bundibugyo district since the attack.

"We were woken in the darkness before dawn on Thursday by shooting, gunshots," said one mother of three.

"I just grabbed my children and what I could carry, and we ran towards Uganda; we were frightened of being killed," she added.

The March 23 movement (M23) rebels and several other armed groups are active in the eastern Congo and are fighting for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, such as gold, the main tin ore cassiterite, and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used to make many electronic devices, including cell phones.

Since early May 2012, more than three million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but some 500,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.