Sudan continues to refuse a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. As pressure to act mounts, the international community faces a question: Does its “responsibility to protect” trump Sudan’s national sovereignty?

To understand the drivers of conflict and the keys to sustainable peace in eastern Sudan, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative Africa, hosted a discussion workshop in Nairobi in August 2006. This briefing summarizes the main discussions and the background to the conflict.

A small African Union force has proven ineffective in the latest surge of violence against humanitarian workers and civilians in Sudan's Darfur region. A showdown is looming at the United Nations, where there are plans to send 17,000 peacekeepers.

An impotent UN Security Council and an ineffective African Union peacekeeping force have failed to alleviate the misery in Sudan's western Darfur region, where over a hundred thousand have been killed and millions of refugees are threatening security across the region.

David Rieff argues that Darfur demands a consensus from the international community on the topic of military intervention. David Rieff believes that humanitarian intervention in Darfur carries greater risks and costs than "human rightists" are willing to recognize.

The Human Rights Watch reports that more than one hundred people have been killed in recent attacks in Eastern Chad. Witnesses showed Human Rights Watch researchers one of the massacre sites.  Human Rights Watch is increasingly circumspect about escalating volatility in West Darfur, which is controlled by the Sudanese government and boarders Chad.  The porous border and diverse armament of groups in the region is ominous and representative of the hostile region.

Marathon negotiations driven by British and American diplomats have produced a tentative agreement between the Sudanese government and the leading rebel faction, though leaders signed the document "with reservations."

Whatever the outcome of the current round of peace negotiations between Sudan's government and rebel groups, the crisis in Darfur seems likely to drag on. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is planning a transition from AU peacekeepers to an expanded, UN-led force.

In a constant state of near-drought and desperately poor in good times, the desert republic of Chad is heading toward a fateful election early next month as Darfur's hungry refugees, a bloody rebel army, and the World Bank all demand their due.

It would seem that, so far, the National Unity government has not yet provided the hoped-for changes to Sudan’s political life or its people.

Millions of Sudanese continue to live in fear of violence because of the unsettled conflict in western Darfur. Also, a one-year-old peace deal ending a long civil war between Sudan’s mainly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south has still not produced a national unity government as planned. The International Crisis Group’s John Prendergast tells cfr.org international pressure is needed for real change in Sudan.

The three-year conflict in Darfur continues as the United Nations prepares to send a peacekeeping mission to replace the ineffectual African Union (AU) presence in Sudan. Human rights advocates say the Darfur situation highlights the international community's inability to protect civilians when their governments are unable or unwilling to help.

The United Nations announced it will send a peacekeeping force to Darfur to quell the ongoing violence. But can the UN succeed where the African Union has not?