New HSBA Situation Update on Sudan and regional outsourced violence dynamics

In the war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have relied on external backing and regional partnerships that extend well beyond Sudan’s borders. While these relationships have developed within different local and historical contexts, the ways in which armed actors mobilise support, resources, and legitimacy reveal important behavioural patterns that lend themselves to a comparative look.

A History of Outsourced Violence: The Rise of the Rapid Support Forces, Libyan National Army, and Wagner Group—a new Situation Update from the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) project—analyses the history of outsourced violence in Sudan, and how the resurgence of mercenary economies and transactional alliances in Sudan, Chad, Libya, and the Central African Republic challenges peacebuilding in the region.

Read: A History of Outsourced Violence: The Rise of the Rapid Support Forces, Libyan National Army, and Wagner Group

For more, check out:

• A Country for Old Men: The State of the Nuer White Armies of South Sudan (December 2025)—a Briefing Paper that examines the state of the Nuer self-defence forces in the context of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan’s counterinsurgency
• Making the Enemy: The War in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal States (November 2025)—a Situation Update that examines the war in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal states
• Wun Weng’s Victory: The Rise and Fall of Benjamin Bol Mel (November 2025)—a Situation Update that examines former Vice-President Bol Mel’s rise and fall
• On The Brink: The Politics of Violence in South Sudan (March 2025)—a Briefing Paper that examines what led South Sudan to delay elections scheduled for December 2024 and considers the civil war.
• The Republic of Kadamol: A Portrait of the Rapid Support Forces at War (January 2025)—a Briefing Paper that offers an insight into RSF recruitment strategies, war aims, and command and control problems
• The Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) project page
• South Sudan outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• New HSBA Briefing Paper on the state of the Nuer White Armies of South Sudan
• New Report on small arms proliferation in Ukraine
• New HSBA Situation Update on the war in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal states
• New HSBA Situation Update on the rise and fall of Benjamin Bol Mel
• New Report on firearm-related violence and trafficking in the Caribbean
• Joint Release — New Report Calls For Coordinated, Multi-sectoral Action to Tackle Firearm-related Violence and Trafficking in the Caribbean