The UN Human Rights Council on Monday condemned indiscriminate drone strikes and attacks on civilians in Sudan, and slammed outside forces fueling the conflict with weapons and mercenaries.
The United Nations' top rights body decided to extend the mandate of the council's independent international fact-finding mission for Sudan for a further year.
The investigation, which gathers evidence of abuses and atrocities, concluded in February that the siege and capture of the city of El-Fasher bore "the hallmarks of genocide".
The draft resolution was adopted by 28 votes to 10, with nine abstentions in the 47-country council.
Sudan said the resolution did not take its reservations into account and had called on all states to vote against it.
The war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, displaced more than 13 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.
The rights council resolution said there was "no military solution to the crisis" in Sudan.
It called for "an immediate and complete ceasefire by all parties, without preconditions, the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism of the ceasefire, the rehabilitation of critical basic infrastructure, (and) a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the conflict".
The resolution condemned violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights by all sides.
It slammed "indiscriminate attacks against civilians, indiscriminate aerial bombardments and drone strikes, resulting in civilian deaths and the destruction of critical infrastructure", including schools and hospitals.
In recent months, both the army and the RSF have increasingly deployed drones, killing more than 1,100 during the first five months of this year alone, according to United Nations figures.
- African opinion shifting -
Those voting for the resolution included Brazil, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.
Those against included China, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan and Qatar.
Britain, which brought forward the resolution, hailed the change in African opinion on the council.
This time, four of its 13 members backed the resolution renewing the investigation -- The Gambia, Malawi and Mauritius joining South Africa -- with seven abstentions and two voting no.
Last year, only South Africa voted yes, with eight abstentions and four nos.
"This is a hugely significant shift," Britain's ambassador Eleanor Sanders told AFP.
"Tragically, it speaks to the scale and gravity of what is happening in Sudan.
"The mandate, and this African support, increases the pressure and therefore increases the cost on the warring parties for what they're doing," she added.
"We hope that it might mitigate the scale and barbarity of some of the atrocities. It might also, in doing that, make the sides a bit more willing to take steps towards an end to this devastating conflict."
The Gambia's representative Cherno Marenah told the council his country's Yes vote was "guided by our overriding consideration for the millions of victims of the war in Sudan, who continue to bear the devastating consequences of this conflict".
