The United Nations human rights chief on Friday warned that the war in Sudan is becoming "more dangerous" for civilians, following reports of army-allied militias carrying out ethnic-based attacks on minorities.
"The situation for civilians in Sudan is already desparate and there is evidence of the commission of war crimes and other atrocity crimes," UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.
"I fear the situation is now taking a further, even more dangerous turn," he added.
The Sudanese army, at war with rival paramilitaries since April 2023, led an offensive this week on Al-Jazira state, recapturing its capital Wad Madani from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In the last week alone, the UN human rights office documented at least 21 deaths in just two attacks in Al-Jazira, saying that the actual number of attacks and of civilians killed "are very likely higher".
The two attacks took place in two camps, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Wad Madani.
Though the RSF has become notorious for alleged ethnic-based violence, reports have also emerged of civilians being targeted on the basis of ethnicity in army-controlled areas.
On Thursday, the US treasury department announced sanctions against army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
It came a week after the US also slapped sanctions on RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.
Responding to recent reports from US officials of the Sudanese army using chemical weapons, spokesperson of the UN human rights chief Ravina Shamdasani on Friday said that due to limited access, the UN "has not specifically documented" such practices during the war.
At a briefing on Friday, Shamdasani described the reports as "very worrying", adding that "they do require further investigation".
She said that the UN had documented "the use of extremely heavy weaponry in populated areas", including air strikes on marketplaces.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine, creating what the United Nations describes as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
In its latest reports, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that more than 120,000 people have fled the ongoing violence in the southern Sudanese states of Blue Nile, White Nile and Sennar to South Sudan since early December 2024.