But Channel 4 News has exclusive evidence of the failing attempt to rescue thousands of refugees from death and disease.
In southern Dafur, aid is still a long way from reaching many of those who've fled. 5 miles north of Nyala, 10,000 people are stranded - destitute and starving in the Otash refugee camp.
People there are so hungry they're eating leaves. Plastic sheets are the only protection from drenching rains: aid agencies say lack of funding is making their task even worse.
According to Peter Feith, the EU’s adviser to it’s foreign policy chief, who’s just returned from Sudan: "We are not in the situation of genocide there, but it is clear there is widespread, silent and slow, killing going on, and village burning on a fairly large scale."
The U.S. Congress has labeled as genocide a campaign of looting, burning and killing in Darfur, where rebels charge that the government armed Janjaweed Arab militias to carry out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against African farming villages.
The government denies the charges and says the Janjaweed are outlaws.
Feith told a news briefing he had some doubts about the Sudanese government's willingness to cooperate in disarming the Janjaweed, whose onslaught on Darfur villages had created a humanitarian crisis in the region.
But the EU and other international players appeared to have no choice but to cooperate with Khartoum on bringing peace to the region, because none of them was ready to mount any significant military operation there, he added.
"There are considerable doubts as to the willingness of Sudan's government to assume its duty to protect its civilian population against attacks," he said.
Feith said he hoped Sudan would stick to its pact with the United Nations in which it agreed to disarm the Janjaweed and other outlawed groups, establish safe areas for the displaced and address the humanitarian disaster.
The United Nations estimates the fighting in Darfur has driven about one million Sudanese from their homes.
Sudan now has about three weeks left to show it is serious about disarming Arab militias or face possible U.N. sanctions.
Feith said his mission recommended sending up to 30 police officers to cooperate with the Sudanese authorities in solving the Darfur crisis, but a decision on this rested with the bloc's member states.
The EU would also consider extending logistic support for the peacekeeping mission the African Union may send to the region.
Many analysts say the planned mission of about 300 troops from Rwanda and Nigeria is not enough to contain the violence in Darfur.
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