Over 7,000 Sudanese have fled southern Sudan and crossed into Uganda, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.

A UNHCR spokesperson in Uganda, Roberta Russo told Xinhua by telephone on Thursday that at least 7,682 Sudanese refugees had enter Uganda since January this year.

She said that during the month of May alone, more than 1,700 refugees crossed into northern Uganda.

Russo said the main reasons the refugees give for fleeing, is hunger and increased attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighting the Ugandan government but have bases in southern Sudan.

Army sources in northern Uganda say that the LRA rebels are terrorizing villages in southern Sudan in search for food.

Russo said that some of the refugees fleeing Nimule Internally displaced Persons Camp say that food distribution to the camp has stopped and the hunger season has started.

Russo also noted that some of the refugees say they fled because they are being force to join the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

Early this year the SPLA signed a peace deal with the Khartoum government ending more than two decades of war in southern Sudan.

However the region has continued to face food shortages and attacks from the LRA.

Source: Xinhua