I was last here in Sedan's troubled region of Darfur back in 2007, brutal conflict

reigned and the international peacekeepers you can hear weren't on the ground yet.

Since then, it's been almost impossible to access this dangerous province and the death

toll has reached 300,000, with a further two and a half million people forced to flee

their homes. Now, a peace deal has been signed with most armed groups and the combined

United Nations African Union Force known as UNIMIT is finally leaving. So does this

mean that the killing is finally over and if it's not, whom will protect civilians?

I'm Mike Thompson and this is assignment on the BBC World Service. My investigation

begins in North Darfur's provincial capital of Elfasha.

A mass before me are around about 100 Pakistani international peacekeepers in the early morning

sunshine beneath the Pakistan flag. Now, all of these men are going to be leaving but

they will be replaced. But from the end of December, all of Darfur's blue helmets of

all nations will be gone for good, leaving the job of protecting civilians to the newly

amalgamated Sudanese army whose ranks will include former January and militiamen fighters

that ferry people and terrorise them for so long.

Even going by the Sudan government's conservative estimate, at least one and a half million

civilians remain in dozens of displacement camps across Darfur, like this one, just outside

Elfasha town. Abu Shuk was home to just over 40,000 people in 2007, more than twice that

number lived here now. 14-year-old Abdullah was born in this camp and it's the only home

he's ever known. I've been told that my family and other relatives were living together

in a very beautiful, lively village, surrounded by Greenland. My parents have told me that

it was a lovely place. Life would be so much better at home because there is food in

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