United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the humanitarian and security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The situation in the African country remains fragile, Ban said in a meeting with Catherine Samba-Panza, the CAR transitional head of state, on Friday.

The two sides “agreed that urgent progress was needed on an inclusive political process,” according to a UN statement.

The UN chief further appreciated plans to convene the Bangui Forum as early as possible next year and to complete the country’s election process before August 2015.

Samba-Panza, for her part, underscored that despite the progress achieved so far the Central African Republic requires further attention.

“More attention needs to be given to CAR in order to find appropriate and immediate solutions to the complexity of the current humanitarian crisis which stemmed from a persisting political, developmental and humanitarian crisis spanning over many years,” she said.

The remarks came on the same day that the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned that the CAR was at risk of becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Over 187,000 people fled from the CAR to neighboring African states last year, bringing the total number of refugees and those displaced internally to more than 850,000, the UN refugee agency added.

The African country descended into chaos last year, when armed Christian groups launched coordinated attacks against the Seleka group that toppled the government last March.

In December 2013, France invaded its former colony after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

However, foreign troops have so far failed to contain the violence in the country.