Thousands of refugees are fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo in several directions as a result of separate flare-ups of fighting in the vast country, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.

More than 15,000 Congolese have fled to southern Sudan in recent months to escape violence from Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who have attacked towns in northeastern Congo several times since January, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.

Some 3,000 Rwandans who had been living in eastern Congo have also left the country in the past six weeks, fearing being caught in the crossfire of a Rwandan-Congolese offensive against another rebel group in the region, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FLDR).

And about 47,000 Congolese refugees have crossed into Uganda since fighting against the FLDR escalated in the North Kivu province last year, with about 180 people a day still trickling in, Redmond said.

Congo "is sending refugees in several directions," he told a news briefing in Geneva, where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is based.

Redmond said a recent LRA attack on the northeast Congolese town of Aba caused as many as 100,000 people to flee, with most seeking refuge in southern Sudan or near the border with Congo, where the rebels are continuing to operate. "It is critical to move all of these refugees away from border areas both for security reasons and to facilitate distribution of aid," Redmond said, stressing that the upcoming rainy season would make key roads in the region impassable.

In the east of the country, thousands more Rwandan civilians are expected to keep crossing into their homeland as a result of escalating violence in their midst. "Most of these people spent almost 15 years in eastern DRC and in many places they integrated with the local Congolese communities," Redmond said.

The number of Congolese refugees who have sought safety in South Sudan since attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) last year has passed the 150,000 mark.

UNHCR staff late last week accompanied local South Sudanese authorities to Lasu, a sparsely populated village in Central Equatoria state where they found the population of Congolese refugees had swollen from 2,000 to about 6,000.

Most of them fled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo town of Aba, which has been attacked several times since January, the latest last week. Lasu is 45 kilometers from the border with the DRC and Sudan.

There had been fears of a mass influx of refugees from Aba after last week's LRA attack. Refugees interviewed in Lasu by the UNHCR team confirmed that Aba, with an estimated population of 100,000, was deserted. Earlier reports of large numbers of displaced people moving towards Central Equatoria state in South Sudan appear to have been unfounded and it is now believed they have moved to the south based on accounts from the new arrivals in Lasu.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports from local residents indicate that LRA fighters are also active in South Sudan, looting property and abducting 21 people in the village of Neuf, 9 kms from Lasu.

The UNHCR and other aid agencies are working to distribute clean water and food, build latrines, and help move people to transit centers in response to the multiple demands in Congo, a former Belgian colony with a population of nearly 67 million has seen up to more than 4 million people die in the wars since the late Gen. Mobutu was ousted.

The Congo war theater has seen Uganda and Rwanda invade the country and control expanse lands. In addition to Uganda and Rwanda, the country's other neighbors' are Angola, Sudan, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Central African Republic, and the smaller Congo-Brazzaville.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a 4 million pound home in Hong Kong, Britain's Sunday Times reported.

Britain's Sunday Times reported that Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace have secretly bought the $US5.8 million ($8.88 million) property in the city's Tai Po district, which the report said was the first in the Far East to be identified as the Mugabes'.

Citing unnamed sources in Zimbabwe, the newspaper identified an intermediary who it said had helped arranged the purchase of the three-storey property, in a walled and gated complex in an exclusive area of Hong Kong.

It was bought last year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the University of Hong Kong, the newspaper said. The paper said it was one of several properties the Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.

Speculation intensified during last year's election turmoil that Mugabe may be looking for a way out of office after he lost the first round to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

But he formed a unity government with Tsvangirai last week, resisting Western calls for him to step down.

Once prosperous Zimbabwe is facing total economic collapse including widespread poverty, high unemployment and crippling hyper-inflation.

Mugabe's second wife Grace has made several shopping and holiday trips to Asia, including Hong Kong and Bangkok, in recent years. The paper said she was also weighing up diamond ventures in China.

The Sunday Times said a reporter and photographer had visited the apartment last week, where they were attacked by the occupants. The journalists reported the incident to the Hong Kong police, who said they were investigating the allegations, the newspaper said.

Mugabe, who turns 85 this week and is expected to hold lavish celebrations, is blamed in the West for much of his country's woes, pursuing policies that have exacerbated the crisis. He is banned from travelling to the European Union.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, says Western powers want to remove him from power and have destroyed the economy by imposing sanctions.

The Mugabes are said to own a far more expensive mansion in Harare. Set in 44 acres of heavily wooded land, the 25 bedroom mansion located brookdale lane, an upscale neigrbohood has seen its allaged pictures do rounds on the internet and in the print Media.  The property is made up of three separate title deeds - the first two bought in 1987 by the M & S Syndicate Ltd, set up seven years earlier.

The Registrar of Companies in Harare said records of M & S Syndicate were not available, but gave names of directors, including the former speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a close associate of Mugabe, and the lead security operative Sydney Sekeramayi.

The third tranche of property was bought 2003 from a farmer who, friends say, was forced to sell because Mr Mugabe wanted to extend the land-holding.

When Mugabe finally retires as president, which does not seem to be in the near future, the law allows Mugabe to continue receiving his full presidential salary which is nowhere near enough to maintain the costs of his retirement mansion.

At present, the cost of protecting the property is borne by Zimbabwe's taxpayers. At least four uniformed police officers patrol the perimeter 24 hours a day. Security agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation are on hand to apprehend inquisitive drivers or bird-watchers who stop near the fence.

The mansion was built by a former Yugoslavian company, Energoproject, which has had close links with Mr Mugabe.

The residence offers more than three acres of accommodation, mostly on three floors, including two-storey reception rooms, an office suite, and up to 25 bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms and spas.

Mugabe has denied that any public funds have been used to construct his palace. He has said that the Chinese-style roof clad with midnight blue glazed tiles from Shanghai was donated by a Chinese friend. The ceilings decorated by Arab craftsmen were a donation from Muamar Gaddaffi, when the two were still friends. Mr Mugabe's mansion is more than three times the size of his present official residence and his offices at State House.