The Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (CAR), Félix Moloua, pledged to work with host countries and international partners to deliver solutions for some 1.2 million forcibly displaced Central Africans at a side event at the Forum on Friday. The Prime Minister hailed the recent launch of an international solutions support platform for CAR – where some 490,000 people are internally displaced – and six neighbouring countries hosting some 750,000 refugees: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan.

“This showed our political will to work together, to strengthen our collaboration, to find concrete solutions for refugees, internally displaced people and returning Central Africans with the support of the international community,” the Prime Minister said. “We are looking forward to solutions and also to social cohesion, peace and the development of the Central African Republic. We’re convinced that, together, it is possible to create a real change.”

Gédéon Panté, a refugee from CAR who fled to Cameroon, described the challenge he faced building “a completely new life in a new environment” before gaining a university scholarship and moving to France to study for a master’s degree. He called on the government representatives in the session to facilitate “the significant participation of refugees and internally displaced people in the solutions platform.”