The mayhem in Darfur, in western Sudan, where some 400,000 people may have been killed and 2m-plus displaced, is worsening. The misery is spreading west into neighbouring Chad, unhinging that country and threatening a proxy war with Sudan. What can be done? It is widely accepted, in Africa and elsewhere, that the peacekeeping force in Dar-fur under the aegis of the African Union (AU) was hopelessly ill-equipped to succeed in its valiant bid to hold the ring. Hence an appeal last month by the UN's secretary-general, Kofi Annan, for the UN to take over with a force twice the size of the AU's, which was 7,000-strong, provided enough countries could be found to send troops wearing the UN's blue helmets (see next article). A role for NATO, as the world's most efficient military alliance, was also widely mooted.
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