GENEVA — The United Nations will send international experts to investigate reports that civilians are being butchered by pro-government forces and insurgents in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

By consensus, the United Nations’ main human rights body, the Human Rights Council, on Friday approved a resolution to send a team of international experts “to establish the truth” about events in Congo’s central Kasaï region, where an upsurge in violence in August last year has resulted in thousands of deaths and the destruction of entire villages. Congo’s government has resisted an independent investigation of the events.

On Tuesday, the United Nations’ human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, presented the council with gruesome details of men, pregnant women and babies who were mutilated by a government-backed militia and insurgents, and the Catholic Church in Congo reported that there had been more than 3,300 deaths since October. They include two United Nations experts murdered in March as they investigated mass graves linked to those events.

The resolution, approved after many hours of diplomatic bargaining, underscored the possibilities and limitations of the Human Rights Council at a point when it is under pressure to demonstrate its ability to respond effectively to crises.