The UN Human Rights Council has decided to hold an urgent debate on the situation in Sudan's El Obeid later this week, with Britain's envoy warning of the risk of large-scale atrocities.
The request on Tuesday follows reports that Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies are massing forces around the city of El Obeid that could result in an escalation of the conflict.
Britain's Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders described "siege-like conditions" that have left thousands trapped and cut off from humanitarian aid amid intensifying drone strikes.
"Up to 500,000 civilians are now at risk of large-scale atrocities. We cannot allow a repeat of preventable atrocities," she told the Geneva-based council.
The request was also backed by Germany, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands, and the debate will take place on July 3.
Sudan's delegation declined to address the council on Tuesday.
Sanders said that London planned to table a motion before the 47-member council on Friday, without giving details.
The council does not have any legal powers but can vote to launch investigations, which are sometimes used as evidence in war crimes cases before national or international courts.
On June 18, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced deep concern over escalating fighting in and around El Obeid, warning that the city could face the kind of large-scale violence seen in Al Fasher.
Sudan entered its fourth year of war in April.
There is no end in sight to the attack by RSF, which witnesses and aid groups say has laid waste to parts of the vast Darfur region.
The war pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti.
The SAF is the country’s regular military and has long been the dominant arm of the state.
The RSF, by contrast, grew out of militant groups known as the Janjaweed, infamous for their role in atrocities during the Darfur war of the 2000s.
Witnesses and aid groups have reported mass killings, starvation, and systematic attacks on civilians by RSF.
