General Benjamin Ubangi, the newly appointed Chief of Staff of the Central African Republic, wiped the sweat from his bald head with a cloth before looking once more over the reports piled on his desk. If there was one thing he hated the most about his new job, it was the paperwork. Ever since he'd moved into his new office, his desk had been daily swamped by mountains of damned papers - reports on everything from the state of the armory to the state of the latrines, and none of it good at that.
For the first several weeks, he'd been frustrated to no end at the atrocious state of the government's forces. The weapons they used were old and prone to jamming, ammunition and munitions for the troops frequently fell abysmally short, and the majority of the 9,000 troops loyal to the government were so poorly trained that they frequently got lost on exercises. Ubangi remembered with some bitterness the first night exercise he'd ordered, in which one brigade had wandered into dense jungle. Two soldiers had died, and many were plagued by fevers and illness afterwards.
However, the abysmal state of affairs he had inherited was finally starting to turn around. 2,000 troops under Ubnagi's direct command were currently undergoing extensive training just to the west of Bangui, and through sheer perseverance he and his faithful subordinates had managed solved the worst of the supply problems which had for two months been plaguing the peacekeeping forces in the north. While huge, heavily systemic issues still remained, Ubangi could confidently say that he had at least somewhat improved the state of the armed forces in his short, two month tenure as Chief of Staff.
Ubangi rapidly grew tired of his resumed efforts at tackling the bureaucratic behemoth, and instead he stood and walked to the giant map that hung on his wall. The Central African Republic, in all its painted glory, he mused to himself. You could never tell from this map how divided and restless it is. Here, I see only a single nation.
Just the other day, Ubangi had received reports that rioters in the Muslim-dominated north had briefly seized the town of Koba from government forces. While it had been quickly retaken, Ubangi feared what a more sophisticated group might do if a throng of ragtag protesters had managed to take a settlement. That, and rumors of money from Libya being funneled into the country to support would-be rebel groups, had him worried. Our nation stands upon a knife's edge - one slip of the blade, and we will all be soaked in blood.
At that grim thought, Ubangi sighed, mustered his willpower, and returned to the paperwork at hand. He had a lot to accomplish if this government hoped to survive the year.
