The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday agreed to the deployment of an independent fact-finding mission to the city of el-Fasher in the wake of reported atrocities carried out there by forces engaged in armed conflict with the Sudanese army.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month overran army troops to take el-Fasher, until then the last Sudanese stronghold in North Darfur, reportedly raping, torturing and executing hundreds of people in the course of one single day.

When the UNHRC met Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, it passed the measure to deploy the mission.

The mission will seek to identify perpetrators and preserve evidence of potential crimes in hopes of affecting future convictions in what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called, "a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population."

"The atrocities that are unfolding in el-Fasher were foreseen and preventable, but they were not prevented. They constitute the gravest of crimes," Turk said.

Turk on Friday went a step further, calling for action against those "profiting" from the war, whether they be individuals or corporations.

He also warned of surging violence in the central Sudanese region of Kordofan, which many have already reported increasingly mirrors the situation in el-Fasher.

The Kordofan region consists of three states and serves as a buffer between the RSF's western Darfur strongholds and the army-held states in the east.

Sudan calls out UAE, which denies RSF support

Sudan's permanent mission in Geneva criticized the UNHCR move, with its ambassador saying it does not go far enough to keep outside actors from interfering in his country's affairs.

Sudan's ambassador called out the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for supporting RSF rebels, which the UAE denies, despite the UN and US calling such accusations credible.

The new UN resolution also calls for the RSF and the Sudanese army to allow humanitarian aid to reach those trapped inside el-Fasher.

UNHCR's Turk said the situation came as "no surprise," adding that the RSF had regularly committed "mass killings of civilians, ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence including gang rape, abductions for ransom, widespread arbitrary detentions, attacks on health facilities, medical staff and humanitarian workers, and other appalling atrocities" since taking control of el-Fasher.

The World Food Program (WFP) said Friday that it is scaling up assistance for the thousands fleeing el-Fasher and seeking protection at various locations.

Fighting between the RSF and Sudanese forces, which began in 2023, has killed at least 40,000 people, the United Nations said another 12 million have been displaced.

The UN Human Rights Council, made up of 47 UN member states, does not have the power to force compliance, but can expose  rights violations and document them for possible presentation before bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Edited by Sean Sinico