Sadly, the world has looked the other way, while the Sudanese conflict has terrifyingly continued without remission. The world cannot just standby in this unnecessary and bloody civil war which has by conservative estimates seen more than 200,000 people killed and more than 2 million people displaced since 2003 in fighting between rebels and government-backed militias. The African Union's peacekeeping force in Sudan has always been wholly inadequate, under-resourced with too limited a mandate.

Little wonder President Omar al-Bashir's Sudanese government and everybody else have been running rings around the African Union peacekeeping force. It is foolish to think that a few thousand AU peacekeepers, with little resources, will be able to effectively police such a large landmass in such a violent conflict.

The West has been slow to provide any significant material or financial support to the overstretched AU peacekeeping force there. The UN Security Council itself has been very slow to act: its commitment last month to expand its mission in Western Sudan from 7,000 to 20,000 troops and giving it new powers to protect civilians -- rejected by the Khartoum government -- were long overdue.

The UN should bring the AU peacekeeping mission, who now will remain in Sudan until December 31, under its control. Pressure should be brought to bear on Omar al-Bashir and the Arab League. Omar al-Bashir is building support for himself by telling his allies the UN Security Council resolution to 'blue-hat' the AU peacekeeping troops will mean taking away the regime's sovereignty and was aimed at backdoor regime-change of the Muslim regime.

In fact, Khartoum has slyly used the fallout in the Arab world over the U.S.' controversial tough security policy to portray itself among Arab countries and developing country sympathisers as a potential 'victim' for regime change by the U.S. Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe has used the same strategy to secure regional solidarity. Furthermore, the Khartoum regime reckons their allies, including China, who have made huge new investments in oil interests in the troubled country will stand by it.

Certainly, the UN Security Council should find a way to reassure the Sudanese regime and its supporters that it has no intentions to take control of the country. However, although the UN Security Council should be open to rewriting the resolution to address these regime change fears, it should go no further. Importantly, the UN Security Council must not back down on enlarging the peacekeeping troops' presence and strengthening its mandate to protect civilians.