GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Thursday urged countries with influence in Africa to help end the fighting in Sudan and said that both warring sides had "trampled" international humanitarian law.

"I take this opportunity to urge all States with influence in the region to encourage, by all possible means, the resolution of this crisis," Turk told a special session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"I strongly condemn this wanton violence, in which both sides have trampled international humanitarian law, notably the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution."

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Emma Farge)