The humanitarian crisis in Sudan's impoverished Darfur region is getting worse, not better. Yet the international community seems paralysed in its ability to stop the fighting between rebel forces, the Sudanese government and its cynically inspired surrogate forces in the bloodthirsty Janjaweed militia. More than 1.6m people have fled their land and villages out of a population of some 6m, but arms continue to pour into the region. All the combatants blithely ignore their commitment to a ceasefire.

The latest killing of two aid workers from the Save the Children Fund in a rebel ambush threatens to disrupt an international relief effort that is already desperately overstretched. The rebels have stepped up their insurgency, while the Sudan army responds by bombing rebel-held areas. No visible progress has been made in promised efforts to disarm the militia. A tiny force of soldiers from the African Union, numbering barely 900, is attempting to police a non-existent ceasefire. They need far more help to be effective.