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

Thousands of families fleeing renewed fighting in Kordofan and Darfur arrive in the city of Kosti, only to find overcrowded camps and dwindling international support.Published On 1 Jan 2026On 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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3War in Sudan: Humanitarian collapse, fighting, deadlock, December 2025list 2 of 3Why are some African countries banning US citizens from entry?list 3 of 3All the big elections to look out for in 2026end of listAziza 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 Al Jazeera 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.