The delegation met with officials from the beleaguered U.N./African Union peacekeeping force on Thursday morning. The Sudanese government’s insistence that troops come only from African nations has been a major obstacle for the joint mission, known as UNAMID. But the government promised Wednesday that Thai and Nepalese forces would be allowed into Darfur once Ethiopian and Egyptian troops arrive.

UNAMID commander Gen. Martin Agwai said that with the addition of the Egyptian, Ethiopian, Thai and Nepalese troops, he expects his force to grow from only 9,000 to 13,000 within the next three or four months.

But that number only represents half of the total number of troops authorized by Security Council Resolution 1769, and the mission still lacks attack helicopters, surveillance aircraft, transport helicopters, military engineers, and logistical support necessary to provide security for the people of Darfur.

On Thursday afternoon, the Security Council delegation visited the Zamzam refugee camp, outside the North Sudan capital of El Fasher. There, staff from the U.N.’s World Food Program told the delegates that they might have to cut food rations for the second time in two months due to the worsening security situation. In March, the WFP announced that it was transporting only half as much food as it normally would because bandits and hijackers were making it difficult for trucks to reach their destinations.

The Security Council delegation will meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday afternoon.

WIDE ANGLE reports from Darfur in Heart of Darfur, premiering July 1. Check your local listings for air times.

Read the latest news on the crisis in Darfur.

ABOUT THE ISSUE

In the half-century since Sudan was granted independence from colonial rule, the country has been in a chronic state of civil war. Most of the fighting has been between the Arab-controlled central government in Khartoum and rebels in the predominantly Christian and animist south. But in 2003, rebels in the Darfur region of western Sudan — a predominantly black, Muslim area — rose up against the central government, angered by the economic and political marginalization of their region.

In response, government-backed militias known as the janjaweed began a “scorched earth” campaign — riding on horseback, the janjaweed looted shops, raped women, and burned entire villages to the ground. Five years later, United Nations officials estimate that as many as 300,000 people may have been killed, and more than 2.5 million have been displaced.

ABOUT THE FILM

The film Heart of Darfur captures the desperation of daily life in remote villages, crowded refugee camps and in El Fasher, the once sleepy capital of North Darfur that is now home to 100,000 refugees and 10,000 U.N. personnel.

Heart of Darfur takes a look at the people and places affected by the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Our cameras follow the people working to bring an end to the conflict and suffering, such as Mohamed Siddig Suliman, a Darfuri aid worker who has been working in the region for more than 20 years. We travel into the expanding Sahara desert with Siddig, where, he explains, three decades of drought conditions have led to fighting over scarce resources—one of the root causes of the conflict in Darfur.

We also meet General Martin Luther Agwai, the former head of the Nigerian Armed Forces, who now leads UNAMID, the joint U.N./African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The film follows Gen. Agwai as he helicopters into hostile areas to meet with leaders of various rebel factions. We learn that he is concerned about the fragmentation of the rebel groups, the logistics of UNAMID’s deployment, the expectations on the mission, and the limits of his power. Still, Gen. Agwai manages to have a positive outlook.

“It is in our culture in Africa that everywhere we are our brothers’ keepers,” he says.