Mile Refugee Camp, Chad ? Thousands of Sudanese refugees crowded around U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday as he visited their camp in eastern Chad and delivered a single message: Bring in the United Nations.

The refugees told Obama an international peacekeeping force is the only hope they have of returning to their normal lives in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Some carried banners held up on sticks demanding U.N. action.

Sudan rejected as “illegal” a U.N. Security Council resolution passed Thursday paving the way for the replacement of 7,000 ill-equipped African Union peacekeepers in Darfur with more than 20,000 U.N. troops and police.