Military Sudan
Military branches:
Sudanese People's Armed Forces (SPAF): Army, Navy, Air Force,
Popular Defense Force
Military service age and obligation:
18-30 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
service obligation - three years (August 2004)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 8,291,695
females age 18-49: 8,135,683 (2005 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 5,427,474
females age 18-49: 5,649,566 (2005 est.)
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males age 18-49: 442,915
females age 18-49: 426,320 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$587 million (2001 est.) (2004)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
3% (1999) (2004)
Transnational Issues Sudan
Disputes - international:
the effects of Sudan's almost constant ethnic and rebel militia
fighting since the mid-twentieth century have penetrated all of its
border states that provide shelter for fleeing refugees and cover to
disparate domestic and foreign conflicting elements; since 2003,
Janjawid armed militia and Sudanese military have driven about
200,000 Darfur region refugees into eastern Chad; large numbers of
Sudanese refugees have also fled to Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the
Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
southern Sudan provides shelter to Ugandans seeking periodic
protection from soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army; Sudan
accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups; efforts to
demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia have been delayed by
civil and ethnic fighting in Sudan; Kenya's administrative boundary
extends into the southern Sudan, creating the "Ilemi Triangle";
Egypt and Sudan retain claims to administer triangular areas that
extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd
Parallel, but have withdrawn their military presence; Egypt is
economically developing the "Hala'ib Triangle" north of the Treaty
Line; periodic violent skirmishes with Sudanese residents over water
and grazing rights persist among related pastoral populations from
the Central African Republic along the border