Geneva - Slovenia, in its capacity as the presiding country of the Council of the EU, requested a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Ethiopia on Monday. More than 50 countries supported the call, Slovenia's Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva announced on Twitter.

EU Ambassador to Geneva Lotte Knudsen tweeted that the UN Human Rights Council must fulfil its responsibilities. According to the French news agency AFP, a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Ethiopia could take place this Friday.

The request for that came after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published a joint report last month. It highlighted "grave abuses" committed by both sides in the conflict in Ethiopia, some of which could amount to crimes against humanity.

Fighting between the Ethiopian army and the rebels of the People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in northern Ethiopia has been ongoing for 13 months, and has so far resulted in thousands of deaths and a severe humanitarian crisis.

According to the UN, more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict, and hundreds of thousands more are facing severe hunger. There are also reports of massacres and mass rapes by both sides involved in the fighting.