There has been a significant rise in civilian killings in Sudan in the first half of this year amid growing ethnic violence, the UN human rights office said on Friday.
"Every day we are receiving more reports of horrors on the ground," Li Fung from the OHCHR Sudan told reporters in Geneva.
At least 3,384 civilians were killed from January to June, mostly in Darfur, according to new report by the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights.
Meanwhile, advancing Sudanese paramilitary forces were fighting to dislodge the army's last holdouts in the Darfur region's main city, satellite imagery showed.
For about 18 months, El-Fasher has been under siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who already control parts of the North Darfur state capital.
Sudan's army -- whose positions in El-Fasher are concentrated in the west -- has been locked in a devastating war with the RSF since April 2023.
Satellite images analyzed by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab show RSF fighters advancing across key terrain, including the former UNAMID compound -- a fortified base in west El Fasher once used by a defunct United Nations-African Union mission, now serving as the headquarters for army allies the Joint Forces.
The fall of El Fasher could lead to a fractured Sudan, according to analysts.
The army controls the country's north, east and center, including the capital Khartoum and Port Sudan, the strategic Red Sea hub where a transitional government is currently based.
The RSF, meanwhile, dominates swathes of the south and most of Darfur, where it has begun establishing parallel administrative structures.
