Sudan vs. South Sudan

Military

	Sudan	South Sudan
Military branches	Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF): Ground Force, Navy, Sudanese Air Force; Rapid Support Forces (RSF, paramilitary); Reserve Department (formerly the paramilitary Popular Defense Forces) (2020) the RSF is an autonomous paramilitary force formed in 2013 to fight armed rebel groups in Sudan, with Mohammed Hamdan DAGALLO (aka Hemeti) as its commander (he is also Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council), from the remnants of the Janjaweed militia that participated in suppressing the Darfur rebellion; it was initially placed under the National Intelligence and Security Service, then came under the direct command of former president Omar al-BASHIR, who boosted the RSF as his own personal security force; the RSF has been accused of committing rights abuses against civilians; it is also reportedly involved in business enterprises, such as gold mining; in late 2019, Sovereignty Council Chairman and SAF Commander-in-Chief General Abd-al-Fatah al-BURHAN said the RSF would be fully integrated into the SAF, but did not give a timeline	South Sudan People's Defence Force (SSPDF): Ground Force (includes Presidential Guard), Air Force, Air Defense Forces (2021)
Military service age and obligation	18-33 years of age for male and female compulsory or voluntary military service; 1-2 year service obligation (2019)	18 is the legal minimum age for compulsory and voluntary military service; the Government of South Sudan signed agreements in March 2012 and August 2015 that included the demobilization of all child soldiers within the armed forces and opposition, but the recruitment of child soldiers by the warring parties continues; as of July 2019, UNICEF estimated that more than 19,000 child soldiers had been used in the country's civil war since it began in December 2013 (2019)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP	1.6% of GDP (2019) 2.3% of GDP (2018) 3.5% of GDP (2017) 2.9% of GDP (2016) 2.4% of GDP (2015)	3.5% of GDP (2019 est.) 3.7% of GDP (2018 est.) 2.8% of GDP (2017 est.) 4.6% of GDP (2016 est.) 10.6% of GDP (2015 est.)
Military - note	in October 2020, after almost a year of negotiations, Sudan's transitional government and a broad alliance of armed rebel groups known as the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) signed a peace agreement; the SRF rebels had operated in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile provinces; under the agreement, SRF fighters are to be slowly incorporated into joint units with government security forces over a period of 39 months; however, two rebel groups - the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which controls territory in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces, are not part of the agreement; in March 2021, the Sudanese Government and the SPLM-N agreed to re-start peace talks the Sudanese military and security forces reportedly control over 200 commercial companies, including businesses involved in gold mining, rubber production, agriculture, and meat exports United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) has operated in the disputed Abyei region along the border between Sudan and South Sudan since 2011; UNISFA's mission includes ensuring security, protecting civilians, strengthening the capacity of the Abyei Police Service, de-mining, monitoring/verifying the redeployment of armed forces from the area, and facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid; UNISFA had about 3,800 personnel deployed as of July 2021 in addition, the United Nations African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) operated in the war-torn Darfur region since 2007 until its mission was completed in mid-2021; UNAMID was a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force with the mission of bringing stability to Darfur, including protecting civilians, facilitating humanitarian assistance, and promoting mediation efforts, while peace talks on a final settlement continued; in July 2021, UNAMID entered a year-long liquidation phase in which it will maintain a guard unit consisting of about 360 police to protect UN personnel, facilities, and assets inside the El Fasher Logistics Base; Sudanese joint security forces will continue to be deployed outside the base and assist the remaining UN contingent with securing its perimeter; note - the October 2020 peace agreement provided for the establishment of a joint security force comprised of 12,000 members tasked with securing the Darfur region in the place of UNAMID; in June 2021, Sudan's transitional government announced it would increase the size of this force to 20,000 and expand its mission scope to include the capital and other parts of the country suffering from violence; the force would include the SAF, RSF, police, intelligence, and representatives from armed groups involved in peace negotiations	the South Sudan People's Defense Force (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), was founded as a guerrilla movement against the Sudanese Government in 1983 and participated in the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005); the Juba Declaration that followed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 unified the SPLA and the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF), the second-largest rebel militia remaining from the civil war, under the SPLA name; in 2017, the SPLA was renamed the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF) and in September 2018 was renamed again as the SSPDF under the September 2018 peace agreement, all armed groups in South Sudan were to assemble at designated sites where fighters could be either disarmed and demobilized, or integrated into unified military and police forces; the unified forces were then to be retrained and deployed prior to the formation of a national unity government; all fighters were ordered to these sites in July 2019; some progress toward merging the various armed forces into a national army has been made; for example, in May 2020, South Sudan announced that it was graduating some unified forces at various training centers across the country, and in June the SSPDF incorporated some senior officers from the main opposition force, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement Army - in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) into its rank structure; nevertheless, overall progress has been slow, and as of early 2021 armed clashes continued to occur between government forces and armed militant groups in several states the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has operated in the country since 2011 with the objectives of consolidating peace and security and helping establish conditions for the successful economic and political development of South Sudan; UNMISS had more than 19,000 personnel, including about 14,000 troops, deployed in the country as of March 2021 United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) has operated in the disputed Abyei region along the border between Sudan and South Sudan since 2011; UNISFA's mission includes ensuring security, protecting civilians, strengthening the capacity of the Abyei Police Service, de-mining, monitoring/verifying the redeployment of armed forces from the area, and facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid; as of July 2021, UNISFA had some 3,800 personnel deployed
Military and security service personnel strengths	information varies widely, ranging from about 100,000 to more than 200,000 active personnel, including approximately 1,500 Navy and 3,000 Air Force; est. 30-40,000 paramilitary Rapid Support Forces; est. 20,000 Reserve Department (formerly the paramilitary Popular Defense Forces) (2020) note: in August 2020, Sudan and the major rebel group Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) signed an agreement to integrate the group's fighters into the Sudanese Army by the end of 2023	the South Sudan People's Defense Force (SSPDF) has an estimated 150-200,000 active personnel, mostly ground forces with small contingents of air and riverine forces (2021) note - some active SSPDF personnel may be militia
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions	the SAF's inventory includes a mix of Chinese, Russian, Soviet-era, Ukrainian, and domestically-produced weapons systems; since 2010, the leading arms providers to the SAF are Belarus, China, Russia, and Ukraine; Sudan has a domestic arms industry that manufactures ammunition, small arms, and armored vehicles, largely based on older Chinese and Russian systems (2020)	the SSPDF inventory is primarily of Soviet origin; from 2010 to 2015, Russia and the United Arab Emirates were the leading suppliers of arms and equipment; South Sudan has been under a UN arms embargo since 2018 (2020)

Source: CIA Factbook