ARTICLE: As Darfur Fighting Diminishes, U.N. Officials Focus on the South of Sudan, By NEIL MacFARQUHAR, New York Times, August 27, 2009

Smart money (meaning people I spoke with during my tour of East Africa on the Esquire story on CJTF-Hoa/Africom back in 2007) has long predicted that it's the south and not the famous northwest chunk known as Darfur that is the longer-term problem.

The subtext: the planned plebiscite in 2011 on the south potentially leaving the north. You have to imagine that such a possibility creates a lot of players trying to manipulate that situation by establishing facts on the ground before then.

The departing head of the UN-AU peacekeeping force says the conflict in Darfur is basically over.