On the open sandy ground in Kosti, a city in south-central Sudan, Aziza sits with her children with her. It has become a gigantic way station for the desperate. They are protected from the sun and extreme weather by no roof or walls.
After making the long, agonizing journey to escape the war, Aziza and her family were forced to sleep in shabby, worn-out sheets that had been converted into a basic shelter.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Aziza only briefly touched on her desperate situation.
Our sons are seated among scattered items, Aziza told Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Taher Almardi, “There is no man to lead us, and we are in another place.” We are in the heat, “. These bedsheets are the only things that keep us safe.
Another mother weeps as she recounts the violence’s economic collapse hidden beneath a tarnishing fabric sheet.
She cried as she told Almardi, “We picked up these sheets from the street… We have nothing,” referring to the material she had used to construct a small tent to shield her family from the elements. “My situation is challenging.” I already had 10,000 Sudanese pounds [16] on the market when I needed to purchase these items right away.
A bottomless displacement
Similar to Aziza, many Sudanese have emigrated from the Kordofan region, which is located in central Sudan, to Kosti, which is located in the White Nile state south of Khartoum.
In recent months, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have made several gains that their Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) opponents are trying to reverse. The war is now more than two and a half years old and is now focused on those regions.
The RSF has been accused of crimes against civilians, particularly when it seizes El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur, in late October, allegedly killing at least 1,500 civilians, according to monitoring organizations.
Tens of thousands of people have fled RSF areas of control as a result of the killings, many of which have been recorded on video, as well as sexual assaults, robberies, and other attacks on civilians.
Women and children are frequently targeted for killing by fighters or forced to flee in a different direction from their families to avoid colliding with the RSF.
Kosti is currently thought to be largely stable in comparison to the front lines, and there are also a lot of new displaced people moving in.
More than 3,500 displaced Sudanese have recently arrived in Kosti, according to local officials, and Lamia Abdullah, White Nile’s commissioner for humanitarian aid, said the city is taking in between 100 and 150 families daily.
Some have been moved to larger canvas tents, but many more recent arrivals have had to use whatever they can until better shelters are available.
The displacement wave that has swept across Sudan as a result of the displacement of people from Darfur and Kordofan has an exemplified impact on Kosti.
In response to the RSF attacks, more than 100, 000 people reportedly fled El-Fasher and its surrounding villages between late October and early December, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). During the war, a quarter of those who had been displaced from El-Fasher had already done so.
Between October 25 and December 17, more than 50, 000 people were displaced from Sudan, according to the IOM. More than 9.3 million internally displaced people (IDPs) are currently documented by the IOM in Sudan, with 55% of them children.
According to an IOM report, “at least one member went without eating for the entire month due to insufficient food” in nearly a third of the displaced households.
As demand rises, aid costs are expected.
Al Jazeera’s Almardi, who was reporting from the Kosti camp, described a grim reality: needs are rising while the humanitarian response is crumbling.
International humanitarian organizations have announced reductions in aid starting this month as a result of donor governments’ budget cuts. This is in response to the camps’ severe lack of medical facilities.
According to Almardi, “health is the biggest challenge.” There are “a significant lack of medical staff, a lack of medicine, and a desperate need for field hospitals,” the statement reads.
That is particularly crucial given the distances people travel to Kosti.
Many of the newcomers spent up to 20 days in Sudan before heading back to White Nile, where they were safe. They leave feeling frightened, underfed, and frightened of the looming winter.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply