All but a few civilians have fled this town in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. Instead, Tine's marketplace is filled with feared janjaweed fighters sporting flip-flops, assault rifles, and a mishmash of uniforms and T-shirts. African Union (AU) commanders say more than 1,000 janjaweed militiamen arrived in town just over two weeks ago to back up 3,000 government troops.

Under a peace agreement signed last May, Sudan's government was supposed to disarm the janjaweed and inform the AU commanders of any troop movements. They have done neither. In fact, the arrival of the fighters in this border town is fresh evidence that the government is remobilizing the janjaweed and other irregular Arab militias in large numbers.

Five peace deals have failed to hold since the rebellion in Darfur began three years ago. Then, local non-Arab tribes took up arms to protest against underdevelopment of Darfur. The Arab-dominated government responded by arming mostly Arab janjaweed militias. More than 2.5 million civilians have fled their homes and at least 200,000 have died. The United States has termed it "genocide," a claim hotly denied by Sudan.

The government's apparent remobilization of the brutal janjaweed (mostly former herders) comes after Sudan's Army lost two recent battles, and morale among the troops fell precipitously. "The government troops are very weak.... Soldiers have refused to fight us. They even brought soldiers from the north and they refused," says Jar al-Neby, a spokesman for the National Redemption Front , the largest rebel alliance. "So the government is mobilizing janjaweed, which is very bad for the civilians because they attack our people all the time."

The remobilization is confirmed by other reports from international aid groups and UN agencies. And, with greater mobility brought by the end of the rainy season, observers say the violence is set to worsen.

The AU says at least 92 people, including many women and children, were killed last week by Arab militias at Jebel Moon, a mountainous border area to the north of El Fashir. Raids across the Chad-Sudan border are increasing, with each country accusing the other of destabilization.

Arab gunmen on horseback have killed up to 220 villagers in eastern Chad in the past week, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said yesterday.

Once home to 70,000 people, Tine has been emptied by a series of bombing raids and Sudanese government attacks over the past two years. Today, its terrified inhabitants huddle on the other side of a dry riverbed under flimsy stick-and-plastic shelters in a camp that marks the border with Chad. From just a few hundred yards away, they watch their abandoned adobe homes collapse with the passing seasons.

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