As the army and Rapid Support Forces vie for legitimacy, Kenyan President William Ruto is accused of profiting from the paramilitary's gold trade

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.

NAIROBI — Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and its allies signed a charter on Sunday to establish a unity government in the conflict-hit country.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu, 22 smaller rebel movements, and political and civil society groups signed the founding charter for a parallel Sudanese government in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Saturday evening.

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.

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 army said on Sunday it had seized back control of the town of el-Gitaina, just south of the capital, from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and broken the paramilitary group's siege on the strategic city of el-Obeid to the west.