Geneva, Switzerland (BBN) – The United Nations refugee agency has said it will airlift 240 tons of aid from Saudi Arabia to Somalia during the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday to ensure food during the special occasion, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

The aid is in the form of special Eid packages, including of ready-to-eat meals, orange juice, sweets and biscuits, Adrian Edwards, the spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva.

The assistance will be distributed to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and among the urban poor in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and the Lower Shabelle region.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, is on a three-day visit to the Horn of Africa to show solidarity drought-affected Somalis during Eid-ul-Fitr.

Speaking in Dollow, a town on Somalia’s border with Ethiopia, Mr. Guterres said that UNHCR was assisting about 850,000 Somali refugees in neighbouring countries. “We should not aim at emptying Somalia, but rather at making every effort to provide aid inside [the country].”

The visit marks the start of a major effort by UNHCR and its partners to step up the delivery of humanitarian aid inside Somalia, where large numbers of people are in need of assistance. UNHCR has previously had only intermittent access to several areas inside due to insecurity.

Many of the displaced Somalis who spoke with Mr. Guterres had harrowing tales of loss and starvation during their flight across harsh desert terrain.

In Ethiopia’s Dollo Ado area, the Kobe camp has seen a slight decrease in the overall mortality rate – from 5.7 deaths per 10,000 people a day last week to 4.9 per 10,000 this week – but deaths among children under the age of five have been on the rise. The mortality rate in that age group has gone up from 12.9 per 10,000 per day last week to 15.3 per 10,000 this week.

Measles remains the main cause of death in Kobe camp, accounting for 68 percent of the fatalities. Other causes of death are severe malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea.

BBN/SSR/AD-31Aug11-11:42 am (BST)