Forces are realigning in Darfur. And yeah, that's as not good as it sounds. What's particularly frightening is that rebels -- reorganizing under the banner of National Redemption Front -- are declaring that the cease fire signed in Nigeria just six months ago meaningless. They're armed up with weapons both taken in conquest from the Sudanese military and brought in from Chad to the west and Eritrea to the east. If the international community is going to persist in this failure to protect the people of the region, they say, then they'll do the job by the necessary means. Khartoum is expected to call on the Janjaweed to respond to the challenge, but more and more the Darfuri rebel groups are engaging directly with official Sudanese military troops, many of whom are black non-Arabs like themselves. Meanwhile, Sudan is supporting anti-government rebels in Chad in their efforts to take power there. So what we're looking at is a well-armed multi-nation conflagration. The choice now seems to be to (a) engage in the political process with all due intensity and commitment or (b) watch while east-central north Africa turns in on itself.

Of course, a political solution depends in some measure on international diplomacy. On that front -- the U.N.'s representative in Sudan has been ordered by Khartoum to pack up and ship out of the country by this Wednesday. His offense? Blogging the full details and particulars of the situation in Sudan, particularly that the "morale in the Government army in North Darfur has gone down" after two recent battles losses.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of the idea of a senior U.N. official aggressively blogging the details of a political situation in which he is, at least in theory, supposed to be an unbiased participant. Take his entry from October 1, which begins: "The Darfur Peace Agreement is in coma. It is not dead, but it is dying. There is no intensive care. The life support system does not function." That's certainly a new take on diplomacy. One which it seems like the world might not be quite ready for.