United Nations - The situation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region is stabilizing with UN-African Union peacekeepers able to provide improved security but still in need of crucial air mobility, their outgoing commander said here Thursday.

"We have been able to stabilize the situation in Darfur. But there are still a lot of challenges," said General Martin Luther Agwai of Nigeria, who is stepping down as commander of the joint UN-AU force (UNAMID) at the end of the month.

He told a press conference that more and more Darfurians were venturing out of internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps to cultivate their lands in their villages and some were even voluntarily returning to their homes.

"That means there's more security," he noted, while conceding that UNAMID's current strength did not allow it to provide security to all the IDPs camps.

Only the bigger camps housing up to 100,000 people had 24/7 security, said Agwai, adding that the situation should improve when an estimated 92 percent of the force's mandated strength of 26,000 is expected to be deployed by the end of the year.