The United Nations rights chief decried Friday the recent killing of dozens of civilians in the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher, including what appeared to be ethnically motivated summary executions.
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are currently waging their fiercest assault yet on El-Fasher, which is the last major city in the vast western region of Darfur still under control of the country's regular army.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk pointed to reports that the RSF had killed at least 53 civilians and injured more than 60 others in attacks between October 5 and 8 alone, adding that the actual number might be even higher.
"I am appalled by the RSF's endless and wanton disregard for civilian life," he said in a statement.
"They continue instead to kill, injure, and displace civilians, and to attack civilian objects, including... hospitals and mosques, with total disregard for international law," he said.
"This must end."
The RSF's war with the army began in April 2023.
The UN rights office said it had confirmed that at least 46 civilians were killed in artillery strikes on the Abu Shouk and Daraja Oula neighbourhoods and the Abu Shouk displacement camp.
That included at least 14 civilians killed during attacks on October 5 and 7 on the Saudi Hospital -- the last major functioning healthcare facility in North Darfur, it said.
At least seven other civilians were meanwhile reportedly summarily executed in home-to-home searches during RSF ground attacks, the rights office said, adding that the "killings may have been ethnically motivated".
Turk also called on all parties to the conflict to draw lessons from the International Criminal Court's conviction this week of a Sudanese militia chief for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed more than two decades ago.
After the ICC handed down its verdict against Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman on Monday, Turk had said it should serve as "a fresh reminder to the perpetrators of today's crimes that there can be no impunity for mass crimes against civilians".
