Regular Army

But last month, more regular army soldiers were sent to the area - a move Machar said was a violation of the ceasefire and transitional deal - and tensions flared.

Communities there distrust regular army troops seen as loyal to Kiir and have been calling for the deployment of the unified force.

A regular Army of around 73,000 would now struggle to do something on a similar scale.

Brigadier General Ariel Heimann – also a reservist and a former chief reserve officer - says Israel is too small a country to have a large, expensive, professional, regular army.

The paramilitary RSF, led by general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been at war with Sudan’s regular army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 2023 when the two former allies took up arms against each other in a ferocious power struggle.