The UN Human Rights Council announced Thursday that it would hold an urgent session next week on the situation in Sudan's violence-ravaged western city of El-Fasher after it was overrun by paramilitaries.
The United Nations' top rights body said in a statement that it would "hold a special session on the human rights situation in and around El Fasher, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Sudan, on Friday, 14 November 2025."
The special session will take place following an official request submitted on Wednesday by Britain, along with Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, the statement said, adding that it in total had backing from 24 council members.
That was well above the one-third of the 47-member council needed to hold a special session.
The move comes after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the Sudanese army since 2023, last month seized control of the strategic city of El-Fasher, following an 18-month siege.
Reports have emerged of executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers, and abductions in and around El-Fasher, where communications remain largely cut off.
More than 65,000 people have fled El-Fasher since its fall, including more than 5,000 who are now sheltering in Tawila, which was already hosting more than 650,000 displaced people, according to the UN.
Last week, the World Health Organization reported the "tragic killing of more than 460 patients and medical staff" during an attack on the last partially functioning hospital in El-Fasher.
And the UN confirmed alarming reports that at least 25 women were gang-raped when RSF forces entered a shelter for displaced people near El-Fasher University in the west of the city.
The announcement of the special council session meanwhile came after the RSF on Thursday said they had agreed to a proposal for a humanitarian truce in Sudan.
In its statement, the RSF said the ceasefire was needed "to address the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the war and to enhance the protection of civilians," as well as to "ensure the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance."
Sudan's army-aligned government indicated earlier this week that it would press on with the war following an internal meeting on a US ceasefire proposal.
The war in Sudan has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
The conflict erupted in April 2023 with a power struggle between two former allies: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, army chief and Sudan's de facto leader since the 2021 coup, and RSF chief General Mohamed Daglo.
AFP
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