NEW YORK, September 2025— President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone has called for a fairer global order and stronger collective action for peace as the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Bio pressed for urgent reforms to strengthen multilateralism, ensure greater African representation on the Security Council, and confront global crises from conflict to climate change.
“This anniversary is not a time for complacency, but for courageous renewal,” Bio told delegates. “The United Nations must be more than a meeting place. It must be a working place for people, for peace, and for our planet.”
Bio, whose country currently sits on the UN Security Council, criticized the body’s repeated paralysis in the face of conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. He demanded immediate ceasefires in all three wars, warning that veto powers should never amount to “a verdict against humanity.”
As Coordinator of the African Union’s Committee of Ten on Security Council Reform, Bio renewed Africa’s longstanding demand for at least two permanent seats, calling the continent’s exclusion “unjust and untenable.” He said the credibility of the Council depends on a structure that reflects today’s world.
Turning to development, Bio outlined Sierra Leone’s investments in agriculture, education, renewable energy, and digital innovation, while stressing that climate change poses an existential threat to his country. He urged developed nations to deliver on their $100 billion annual climate finance pledge and highlighted Sierra Leone’s ratification of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty as evidence of its global commitment.
On regional security, Bio reaffirmed ECOWAS’s role in defending democracy and countering terrorism in West Africa and the Sahel, emphasizing that Africa should be recognized as “a partner to be empowered, not a problem to be solved.”
He closed by urging member states to build “a more representative, more responsive, and more resilient” UN. “The world does not need a louder United Nations,” he said. “It requires a braver United Nations.”
