Sudan's army and allied groups could face formidable battlefield challenges if the recent political agreement between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and a powerful faction of a southern rebel group becomes a military alliance,

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allies have signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government, as Sudan’s army made advances recently against the rival groups.

The RSF has seized most of the western Darfur region and swathes of the Kordofan region in an almost-two-year war, but is being pushed back from central Sudan by the Sudanese army.