The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday said that ethically motivated attacks perpetrated by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militia had killed hundreds in West Darfur.

Bloodshed has escalated since fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF erupted in April, bringing the country to the brink of civil war.

"In West Darfur, ethnically motivated attacks perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of non-Arab civilians primarily from Masalit communities," Volker Turk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"Such developments echo a horrific past that must not be repeated."

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Alison Williams)