The sources said that the US-British request calls for holding an official open session of the Security Council on Tuesday, 25 April. It is to be held immediately after the end of the Council's meeting on "The Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestinian Question."

However, the official Sudanese mission strongly objects to holding this session so as not to internationalise the Sudanese issue and to give the African Union and other Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) the opportunity to mediate and reach a settlement, the sources clarified.

Despite that, the worsening humanitarian situation on one hand, and the West's desire to reveal the alleged role of Russia’s Wagner militias in Sudan on the other – as is happening in Ukraine – push those countries to insist on holding the session even if it is limited to Council members and under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation chairs the Security Council during the current month.

The format of the session has not yet been determined, but there is agreement among the council's member states, which was reached late yesterday in New York.

According to the UN, tens of thousands of Sudanese people have fled the country to neighbouring countries as fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces enters its second week.

Since tensions erupted, mediators from the UN, the AU, regional IGAD bloc, and Western and Gulf capitals have been attempting to bring Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to the negotiating table. Yet, so far efforts have been in vain.

The fighting between army chief Burhan's forces and the rival RSF of his former deputy Daglo began on 15 April over a dispute on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.