If anybody in the international community needs confirmation that the crisis in Darfur is set to worsen, they need look no further than el-Fasher airport in North Darfur.

Over the last month a speculated 12,000 Sudanese troops have been massing in North Darfur. The Daily Telegraph recently reported traffic in el-Fasher to have been at a standstill as armoured vehicles and tanks rolled through the city centre. Various news publications, both foreign and Sudanese, have reported the gathering of troops in the region, along with the deployment of an increased number of helicopter gunships.

The stationing of troops has been interpreted by many commentators as a precursor to increased fighting.

But if you look closer there are other indicators that something is brewing.

Dug in the sand along both sides of the runway at el-Fasher airport are military trenches. Some have mounted guns. Just metres away stand weathered tents, in which Sudanese soldiers sit with their Kalashnikovs, drinking tea and watching the planes come and go.

The last time I was in el-Fasher, before the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja, the trenches simply did not exist. There were armoured cars, Sudanese forces helicopters and a strong military presence, but no trenches.

El-Fasher is the capital of North Darfur and the closest major Darfuri city to Khartoum. The surrounding areas have seen the greatest intensity of fighting. According to U.N. envoy Jan Pronk, Sudan's army has experienced losses in the region. The Sudanese government denies this.

If the fighting is to increase, el-Fasher and the surrounding area seems likely to be where it will happen first.

For the sake of the people of Darfur who have suffered so considerably already, I hope the international community is watching.

All parties involved in this contemptible affair need to know they are being watched and their actions will not be tolerated.

Then, just maybe, there is a chance the airport trenches of el-Fasher will become redundant.