Sudan vs. Chad
Military
| Sudan | Chad | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Chadian National Army (Armee Nationale du Tchad, ANT): Ground Forces (l'Armee de Terre, AdT), Chadian Air Force (l'Armee de l'Air Tchadienne, AAT), General Direction of the Security Services of State Institutions (Direction Generale des Services de Securite des Institutions de l'Etat, GDSSIE); National Gendarmerie; National Nomadic Guard of Chad (GNNT) (2021) note(s): the GDSSIE, formerly known as the Republican Guard, is the presidential guard force and considered Chad's elite military unit; the Chadian Army also includes the Special Anti-Terrorist Group (SATG; aka Division of Special Anti-Terrorist Groups (DGSAT)) |
| 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) | 20 is the legal minimum age for compulsory military service, with a 3-year service obligation; 18 is the legal minimum age for voluntary service; no minimum age restriction for volunteers with consent from a parent or guardian; women are subject to 1 year of compulsory military or civic service at age 21 (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) | 2.2% of GDP (2019 est.) 2.3% of GDP (2018) 2.2% of GDP (2017) 1.8% of GDP (2016) 2% of GDP (2015) |
| 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 2021in 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 ANT is chiefly focused on counterinsurgency/counter-terrorist operations against Boko Haram (BH) and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) in the Lake Chad Basin area (primarily the Lac Province) and countering the terrorist threat in the Sahel; in 2020, it conducted a large military operation against BH in the Lake Chad region; that same year, Chad sent troops to the tri-border area with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to combat ISWA militants (it also contributes a large force to the UN MINUSCA mission in Mali); the ANT has frequently conducted counter-insurgency operations (COIN) against internal anti-government militias and armed dissident groups |
| 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 | limited and varied information; approximately 30,000 active personnel (20-25,000 Ground Forces; 300 Air Force; 5-10,000 General Direction of the Security Services of State Institutions); 5,000 National Gendarmerie; 3,500 National Nomadic Guard of Chad (2021) |
| 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 ANT is mostly armed with older or second-hand equipment from Belgium, France, Russia, and the former Soviet Union; since 2010, it has received equipment, including donations, from a variety of countries, including China, Italy, Ukraine, and the US (2020) |
| Military deployments | est. 1,000-3,000 Libya; est. 1,000-2,000 Yemen (2020) | 1,800 Mali (MINUSMA) (Jan 2021) note(s): Chad is part of a five-nation anti-jihadist task force known as the G5 Sahel Group, set up in 2014 with Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger; Chad has committed 550 troops and 100 gendarmes to the force; in early 2020, G5 Sahel military chiefs of staff agreed to allow defense forces from each of the states to pursue terrorist fighters up to 100 km into neighboring countries; the G5 force is backed by the UN, US, and France; G5 troops periodically conduct joint operations with French forces deployed to the Sahel under Operation Barkhane; Chad hosts the headquarters of Operation Barkhane in N'Djamena Chad has committed approximately 1,000-1,500 troops to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against Boko Haram; national MNJTF troop contingents are deployed within their own territories, although cross-border operations are conducted periodically; in 2019, Chad sent more than 1,000 troops to Nigeria's Borno State to fight BH as part of the MNJTF mission |
Source: CIA Factbook
