President Biya's press kit at the 71st Ordinary Session of the UN General Assembly

This is the first time the General Assembly has called for a summit at the Heads of State and Government level on large movements of refugees and migrants and it is a historic opportunity to come up with a blueprint for a better international response. It is a watershed moment to strengthen governance of international migration and a unique opportunity for creating a more responsible, predictable system for responding to large movements of refugees and migrants.

According to UNHCR statistics for 2009, 99,957 refugees and individuals in refugee-like situations were resident in Cameroon.Fifty-thousand people from the Central African Republic live at the Garoua Boulaye refugee camp in eastern Cameroon. Some have been there since conflict in the C.A.R. erupted in 2013.

Over the past year, the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon have pushed back Boko Haram insurgents in north-east Nigeria and northern Cameroon, bringing greater security in some areas. But the insurgency remains a major threat to peace in the region.

The conflict has forced more than 200,000 people to flee to Cameroon, Chad and Niger following attacks on their villages in Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The conflict has since 2014 spilled over into Cameroon, where some 170,000 Cameroonians are internally displaced in the north.