There is little hope for an end any time soon to the ongoing conflict in western Sudan's Darfur region. The fighting that broke out in 2003 has killed or wounded more than 300,000 people and displaced at least two million more, according to the United Nations. All efforts by outside actors including the UN and the African Union (AU) to bring lasting peace to the region have failed.

The Darfur conflict runs along largely ethnic lines. The Sudanese military and the Janjaweed, a militia recruited mostly from nomadic Arabic-speaking tribes, have been fighting against rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), drawn from the agricultural, non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups.

Since 2003, however, these two rebel groups have fragmented into many more, analysts say, making the job of brokering peace all the more difficult. In recent years fighting has also spilled over into neighboring Chad. Both rebel and pro-government commanders are suspected of having committed war crimes.

On July 31, 2007, UN Security Council Resolution 1769 called for the deployment of a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force and 6,000 police officers (UNAMID), replacing a poorly funded and ill-equipped 7,000-man AU mission in the region.

UNAMID's deployment began early this year but the new mission is itself woefully understaffed and ill-equipped. The Sudanese military has continued operations in the region. In late August, German Agro Action said it would stop distributing humanitarian aid, including food for 450,000 victims provided by the World Food Program (WFP), in the region. The WFP said 97 trucks had been hijacked this year and two drivers killed.