KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Rebels have kidnapped 90 children in eastern Congo, while weeks of fighting elsewhere along the restive border region have forced 100,000 people from their homes, according to U.N. officials.

The children were taken from two village schools last week during a series of attacks in Orientale province, which borders Uganda, according to a statement by the United Nations Children’s Fund. Local authorities confirmed that the attackers were members of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, the agency said.

"UNICEF is very concerned that (the children) will now be forced to fight or support fighting, putting their lives at risk," regional administrator Julien Harneis said in a statement Monday calling for their release. The rebel group has bases in the nearby forest.

Three civilians were killed in the attacks, and a village chief and two Italian missionaries were abducted, UNICEF said. The attackers also torched one village, called Kiliwa, so thoroughly that only the health center was left standing.

Meanwhile, clashes continued to erupt between Congolese rebels and army forces further south in the province of North Kivu.

Insurgents and army troops fought Monday in the towns of Sake and Kiroshe, southwest of the provincial capital of Goma, according to U.N. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich. He said several civilians were injured in fighting that lasted until the afternoon, but said he had no further details on casualties.

After years of fighting between warring militias, eastern Congo had appeared on the road to peace following a deal signed in January by the government and a host of rebel groups. However, the area has seen renewed fighting since late August.

At least 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in less than four weeks, said Christophe Illemassene, a spokesman with the United Nations’ humanitarian agency.

The continued fighting has kept humanitarian workers from getting to many of those who have fled, Illemassene said.

The Congolese fighters are loyal to an eastern warlord named Laurent Nkunda, who commanded rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda during Congo’s 1998-2002 war that extended into half a dozen nations. After the broader war ended, Nkunda launched a low-level rebellion, claiming Congo’s transition to democracy had excluded the country’s minority Tutsi ethnic group.