"I call on my children, especially the anti-balaka, to put down their arms and stop all the fighting. The same goes for the ex-Seleka - they should not have fear. I don't want to hear any more talk of murders and killings. Starting today, I am the president of all Central Africans, without exclusion."

“Violence is in the mind and on the hearts of our population for many, many years. The process of peace and pacification is a work that requires long breath, like a marathon.”

“Even this morning in my speech to the World Bank, I said it was important to undertake a study of the causes and the roots of the conflict in the Central African Republic. There are several factors. There is poverty, exclusion of communities and regions. Those who feel excluded react.”

“Girls have to get much more interested in public matters, in international matters, and affirm themselves by making frank, open, honest commitments in the area of the protection of women’s rights, in the area of politics and in all other sectors. Sometimes when women are questioned on this or that subject, we are less informed than the boys.”