The conclusion of open rebellion in Chad has brought no calm to the Darfur region and the Chad/Sudan conflict. On the contrary, matters are growing worse.
Sudan and its militia allies are stepping up their attacks on civilians in Darfur, burning towns and even killing aid workers.

A U.N. assessment mission to Abu Surouj and Sirba found buildings burned to the ground and reports of sustained air and ground assaults.

The director of Human Rights Watch Africa, Georgette Gagnon, is predicting catastrophe.

According to HRW, the attacks have cut off about 160,000 civilians from aid.
"People in West Darfur are completely at the mercy of the armed groups," Gagnon said. "The Sudanese government's own police pulled out in December because of the fighting, and the UN force simply doesn't have the capacity to protect them."

The entire region is feeling the impact of the conflict's escalation. 12,000 refugees from Darfur fled into Chad this weekend, but Chad says it's reached the limit of what it can absorb.

"We are simply demanding that they be moved, otherwise we will do it," [Prime Minister] Koumakoye said.
He accuses Sudan of being behind last week's failed coup attempt by rebels.
Mr Koumakoye, told reporters in the capital, N'Djamena, the international community should return the refugees to Sudan or move them elsewhere.
Sudan denies being behind the rebel assault on the capital last week, which Chadian forces repulsed.
Mr Koumakoye said: "We are being attacked by Sudan because of these refugees."

Sudan, of course, promptly condemned the move as a political ploy.
With tensions between the two countries rising, the UN peacekeeping force in Darfur (with only 9,000 troops on the ground out of a planned 26,000) faces serious threats. In the worst case scenario, UN officials fear, war would break out both within Sudan and/or between Sudan and Chad - with the peacekeepers caught in the middle. With the size of the air and ground operation mounted by the Sudanese government in the last few days, this possibility is starting to seem very real.
The international community needs to ask itself how much longer we will permit the violence and destabilization in Darfur to continue. For aid workers and peacekeepers to be murdered while genocide continues unabated is a shocking demonstration of the impotence of international intervention thus far.
Where is the pressure point? Is it Steven Spielberg's decision to drop his adviser status to China out of concern over their stance on Sudan? Is it a buildup of more UN forces? Greater US involvement? Greater EU involvement? It seems to me that we need more boots on the ground, to intimidate Sudan's government into backing off. But in any case, we need to do some quick thinking, because people are dying and the situation is only getting worse.
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