‘Only sheets to cover us’: Sudan’s displaced face little shelter in Kosti

On the outskirts of Kosti, a city in south-central Sudan that has transformed into a giant way station for the desperate, Aziza sits with her children on the open sandy ground. There are no walls to protect them, and no roof to shield them from the sun or extreme weather.

After a long and harrowing journey escaping the war, Aziza and her family have been reduced to sleeping under thin sheets repurposed into a basic shelter.

Aziza spoke briefly, only touching on the desperation of her situation.

“There is no man to lead us; our sons are in one place, and we are in another,” Aziza told media Arabic correspondent Taher Almardi, sitting amid scattered belongings. “We are sitting in this heat. Nothing protects us but these bedsheets.”

Under a fragile fabric sheet, another mother weeps as she recounts the economic collapse that has accompanied the violence.

“We picked up these sheets from the street … we have nothing,” she told Almardi, holding back tears, and referring to the material she had used to make a small tent to protect her family from the elements. “My situation is difficult. I had 10,000 Sudanese pounds [$16], and it was gone in the market in an instant just to buy these few things.”

‘A bottomless displacement’

Many Sudanese, like Aziza, have fled to Kosti, located in the White Nile state south of the capital, Khartoum, from the Kordofan region, also in central Sudan, and Darfur, in the west.

The current front lines of Sudan’s war, now more than two and a half years old, have been focused on those regions in recent months, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) making several gains that their Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) opponents are trying to reverse.

The RSF has been accused of committing crimes against civilians, particularly when it seized the North Darfur city of el-Fasher in late October, where the paramilitary force was reported to have killed at least 1,500 civilians, according to monitoring groups.

The killings, many of them recorded on videos, as well as sexual assaults, robberies, and other attacks on civilians, have sent tens of thousands of people fleeing away from RSF areas of control.

Many of those who have fled are women and children, with men often targeted for killing by fighters, or forced to flee in a different direction from their families to avoid running into the RSF.

Kosti is currently considered to be relatively stable compared with the front lines and is witnessing a new surge of displaced people arriving.

According to local officials, more than 3,500 displaced Sudanese have arrived in Kosti in recent days, and Lamia Abdullah, White Nile’s humanitarian aid commissioner, said the city is receiving approximately 25 families – 100 to 150 individuals – every day.

Some have been housed in larger canvas tents, but many of the more recent arrivals have had to find whatever they can until better shelters are provided.

The surge of displaced people into Kosti is emblematic of what is happening across Sudan as a result of the wave of displacement from Darfur and Kordofan.

According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 100,000 people are estimated to have fled el-Fasher and its surrounding villages between late October and early December, following the RSF attacks. Three-quarters of those displaced from el-Fasher had already been displaced previously during the war.

The IOM also reports that more than 50,000 people were displaced from Sudan between October 25 and December 17. In total, the IOM has recorded more than 9.3 million internally-displaced people (IDPs) in Sudan, with 55 percent of them children.

Nearly a third of the displaced households reported “at least one member going a whole day and night without eating within the past month due to insufficient food”, according to an IOM report.

Aid cuts loom as needs rise

Reporting from Kosti camp, media’s Almardi described a grim reality as the humanitarian response is collapsing just as needs skyrocket.

Despite the influx, international humanitarian organisations have announced reductions in aid starting this month due to funding shortages as donor governments cut spending. This comes as the camps face a severe lack of medical facilities.

“The biggest challenge is health,” Almardi reported. “There is a significant shortage of medical staff to monitor the displaced, a lack of medicine, and a desperate need for field hospitals.”

That is particularly important considering the journeys made by the people arriving in Kosti.

Many of the new arrivals trekked for up to 20 days, some crossing into South Sudan before looping back into Sudan’s White Nile state to find safety. They arrive exhausted, malnourished, and terrified of the approaching winter.

“The displaced are waiting for the unknown in harsh conditions,” Almardi said. “And the war has not yet ended.”