UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told the UN Human Rights Council to immediately address the escalating atrocities in Darfur by sending an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.

THE UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on violations in Sudan’s strife-torn western region of Darfur today, after a rebuke from Kofi Annan that it has not paid enough attention to rights violations in the province.

The Sudanese army and government-backed militias are committing acts of “inexplicable terror” against civilians, including children, in Darfur, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official says.