Abstract: Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Darfur, one of Sudan's most marginalised areas, since rebellion erupted early in 2003.More than three million are in need of food aid, many of them beyond the reach of aid because of insecurity and government obstacles to humanitarian relief.With a donor shortfall of $389 million, World Food Programme rations cut by half and murderous, government-supported Janjaweed militias still uncontrolled, the conditions of life in the wretched displaced camps of Darfur will soon deteriorate, lethally, as the rainy season sets in.And yet the people in those very camps are rejecting, in significant numbers, the Darfur Peace Agreement that was signed in Abuja on 5 May between the Government of Sudan and the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is by led by Minni Minawi.So, too, is Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur, chairman of the SLA and leader of the largest SLA faction (although not perhaps the strongest, in purely military terms).The message is clear: they do not believe this peace will work.On 15 May, Abdul Wahid won from the African Union, which mediated the Abuja process, another two weeks in which to sign the DPA -or be damned and subjected to punitive sanctions under Security Council Resolution 1591.But the AU, under the leadership at Abuja of Salim Ahmed Salim, has thrown in the towel and the international com-munity is falling over backwards to do nothing to alienate the two parties whose signatures are on the bottom of the agreement -parties which are ruled by small, tribally-based elites, which run ruthless security apparatuses and which do not have the confidence of even a fraction of the people in whose name they have divided the spoils of war.With the AU mediation leaderless, there is no process today even to attempt to bring Abdul Wahid around -a difficult task, certainly, but a vital task when the alternative is, at best, the probable failure of the DPA and, at worst, a descent into chaos in which the man who created the rebel movement, inasmuch as any one person did, will be portrayed as the villain and the genocidal government which made rebellion necessary as a disappointed partner in peace.Abdul Wahid's support for the DPA is what is needed to change the opinion of the displaced camps and villages of Darfur, if not the intellectuals in Khartoum and the diaspora.For most Darfurians, Abdul Wahid, not Minni, is the symbol of the 'revolution'.If either of the two factional leaders has a political vision it is Abdul Wahid, no matter how poor his leadership skills and how chaotic and unreliable his negotiating style.Minni's Zaghawa are at most 8% of the population of Darfur and are themselves divided; Abdul Wahid's Fur, historic rulers of the Sultanate which gives Darfur its name, comprise 26-30% and are more cohesive.If either man has support outside his own tribe, it is Abdul Wahid.