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Since its deployment in 2004 to monitor a much violated cease-fire, the 7,000-member force has been hamstrung by inadequate equipment, a smattering of troops that translates to about one soldier for every 28 square miles and, above all, a very limited mandate that often prevents it from engaging the combatants and stopping the bloodshed.

Obstacles Test African Force in Grim Darfur
By LYDIA POLGREEN

MENAWASHEI, Sudan, May 13 — Maj. Essodina Kadangha was in hot pursuit of a band of Arab militiamen robbing villagers on their way to market.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" shouted Major Kadangha, a Togolese Army officer, straining to be heard from the roof of the armored personnel carrier hurtling through the desert. "You missed the turn!"

If only he could have communicated with the Nigerian driver of the Canadian personnel carrier. Their donated radios worked on different frequencies, leaving them unable to hear or talk to each other. The militia, known as the janjaweed, got away that day, as they have almost every day in the brutal conflict that has racked Darfur.

Such are the trials of the African Union force struggling to quell the violence in this desolate region, where at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been driven from their homes.