NAIROBI, Nov 17, 2006 (AFP) - The United Nations said Friday it would begin emergency airlifts of humanitarian supplies at the weekend to nearly 80,000 desperate and homeless Somali refugees in camps in flood-hit northeast Kenya.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said the flights would begin on Sunday carrying tarpaulins, medical supplies and fuel to the Dadaab refugee camp complex, where raging flood waters have left more than 80,000 Somalis without shelter.

"Sunday's initial delivery of supplies is critical since there is a desperate need for plastic tarpaulins to help refugees reconstruct their shelters," the UNHCR said in a statement released in the Kenyan capital.

It said three flights on Sunday will carry 25,000 tarpaulins, health kits and 7.2 tonnes of fuel to Dadaab, about 470 kilometers (290 miles) northeast of Nairobi, which has been ravaged by floods from unusually heavy seasonal rains.

Aid workers in the Dadaab camps began on Friday distributing limited supplies to the worst-affected refugees, who had been unreachable until now "due to the massive flows of water that have swept across the region," it said.

At least two refugees have drowned in the floods and UN officials have described the situation as "critical", with fears about the possible spread of waterborne diseases, such as cholera.

Outside Dadaab, Kenyan authorities have reported 21 deaths from the inundations that have washed out roads and bridges and left large areas of the north, northeast and coast unreachable by land.

The floods have further compounded the misery of more than 160,000 Somali refugees in Dadaab, many of whom fled their homes in recent months fearing all-out war between the country's powerful Islamists and weak government.

Perched on the brink of war, Somalia itself is facing its worst flooding in perhaps 50 years, the United Nations said on Thursday, displacing some 50,000 people in recent days.

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