"I'm feeling more than desperate about Darfur. My ration of hope is meagre," says actress and human rights campaigner Mia Farrow. As part of a forthcoming interview for Another Magazine, I sat down with Mia to discuss her recent visits to Darfur. As a UNICEF spokesperson, she visited Darfur first in 1996, and then again in June this year and she is due to return shortly to the Sudan/Chad border to continue her work.

In her op ed piece for the Chicago Tribune on July 26 Farrow wrote:

"The women's stories are shockingly similar. In quiet voices they speak of their losses - of beloved sons, husbands, brothers and fathers tortured, mutilated, murdered. Halima, whose baby was pulled from her back, told me how she fought, how she did her utmost to hold on to her child. But he was torn out of her arms anyway, and killed before her eyes with a bayonet. Three of her five children were slaughtered that day, and her husband too. 'Janjaweed,' she said, 'they cut them and threw them into the well.' Halima clasped my two hands, pleading: 'Tell people what is happening here. Tell them we need help.'"

"This is a dramatic situation that we see unfolding yet again," says Jan Egeland the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs. "There is no security for the civilian population whom we want to protect and assist, or for our own people on the ground. We have lost too many colleagues. We have lost too many vehicles. We have had too many trucks looted. Maintaining this lifeline for three million people is really unsustainable for us."

Despite a peace deal between the Sudanese government and one of the rebel groups being signed earlier this year, the situation in Darfur is rapidly sliding into genocide. Many international observers are warning of a Rwanda-scale catastrophe.

Egeland stated on November 1 that he believes the various rebel factions, government forces and the Janjaweed (state funded militia) are all to blame for the worsening humanitarian situation: "It is not about good guys and bad guys, black and white. Every armed group in Darfur now abuses of civilians, making relief workers' jobs nearly impossible to carry out."

"I think long-term, the only solution is an integrated peacekeeping force that has enough resources, enough soldiers, enough police and enough civilian employees to do what we have done successfully in large parts of the (Democratic Republic of the) Congo, which was as bad or worse, only a few years ago," adds Egeland.

The Bush government sent special envoy Andrew Natsio to Sudan last week.

Bush's statement on Mr Natsio's return rings hollow and weak. "Andrew is going to work with other partners in peace, and they'll take that plan to the current government of Sudan," stated Bush, without providing any further details. There is no mention of the expulsion of the UN special envoy Jan Pronk, or the Sudanese government's rebuttal of the UN Security Council resolution passed in July that mandated the deployment of 20,000 peacekeepers in Sudan to replace the vastly under-funded and ineffective African Union force.

In the meantime, President Omar al-Beshir's government is able to purchase Russian manufactured arms with revenues from oil reserves in the south that supply approximately 11 per cent of China's growing demand. The Chinese and Russian governments are systematically turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis.

Nicholas D Kristoff, the New York Times columnist wrote on October 29, "President Bush and European leaders need to use their leverage on four nations in particular to make them part of the solution: China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Libya. China is playing a disgraceful role underwriting the Darfur genocide, by giving Sudan the guns used to shoot children and by protecting Sudan in the UN Security Council. And the three Arab states need to be involved so that Sudan cannot claim that plans to protect Darfuris are American or Jewish plots to dismember the country."

As mid-term elections take place in the US right now, it seems unlikely that George Bush will do more than pay political lip service. It seems there is no hope right now that anyone will deal with the human rights crisis in Darfur. Various reports estimate that there have been between 300,000 and 450,000 deaths. A further 2,500,000 people are estimated to have been displaced, now living in camps in impoverished conditions, many without any humanitarian aid. According to the Genocide Intervention Network over 100 people are dying each day; 5,000 every month.

Mia has agreed to show a selection of her images on Dazed Digital to raise awareness for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Darfur. "If we are not doing anything to respond, we are complicit," she says.

Mia and Ronan Farrow's full report is published on http://www.genocideintervention.net/

Join the campaign: UK http://www.amnesty.org.uk/crisis/ US: http://www.savedarfur.org