The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights held an extraordinary session in Pretoria, South Africa to discuss the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

The meeting, held from 18-19 September, adopted the Commission's report of its July fact-finding mission. The mission sought to investigate human rights abuses in Darfur, including the systematic destruction of property, raids, mass killings, and rape and abduction of women and children by the government-supported Janjaweed militias.

Due to a variety of problems, the mission stated they were unable to see all of the areas they needed, including some of the internally displaced people camps in Sudan and refugee camps in Chad. The Commission agreed it would send a second mission to continue the investigations.

Organisations also present, including Anti-Slavery International and other international, African and Sudanese NGOs, were concerned with the gaps in the reporting and lack of access. Over one million people have been displaced as a result of the raids by government-supported militias. This violence is disturbingly similar to the slave raids that plagued southern Sudan for decades and resulted in the enslavement of thousands of people.