DOLO, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s famine refugees are celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends a month of fasting, with the food rations distributed by aid agencies for their survival.

Eid al-Fitr is traditionally celebrated with grand feasts in which delicacies are in abundance after fasting during the month of Ramadan

Though they cannot hold a feast, one refugee family said they were grateful Tuesday for surviving the long trek to seek food — in which some desperate parents were forced to leave behind weak hungry children to die.

Quresho Mohmoud Dahir said she will cook her donated rations, and give thanks for the kindness of the people that let her family survive a famine that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives. The U.S. estimates that 29,000 children have died from the famine in Somalia.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.