Citing a continued lack of security, the UN recommended Wednesday that African monitors should deploy in Darfur refugee camps to better protect the 1.5 million displaced persons there and to build trust with the community. Radhia Achouri, the UN advance mission spokeswoman in Khartoum, reported an increased amount of banditry hampering aid efforts and called for a more proactive monitoring system. The monitoring force in Sudan previously amounted to 150 monitors and 300 support troops, mostly grouped in larger towns, but Achouri echoed yesterday's comments from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour saying that the country would need a much larger force - up to 5000 monitors - to effectively deter attacks and protect aid workers. Reuters has more. Click here to read the story from JURIST's Paper Chase on Arbour's Tuesday address to the UN Commission on Human Rights.

UN sanctions under recently-passed Security Council Resolution 1564 still loom if the Sudanese government cannot stop the violence in the Darfur region, but the country has faced several setbacks, including last month's failed cease-fire with Darfur rebels. Sudan has contested an American contention that the Darfur crisis is an instance of "genocide" - see remarks offered Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington by Sudanese ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed. For recent Paper Chase news on the crisis in Sudan, click here. The UN provides background information on the Sudan situation here. The UN has also launched a Sudan Information Gateway.