By Sallieu S. Kanu
UN Headquarters, New York, Tuesday, November 17, 2025 — His Excellency Dr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chair of the ECOWAS Authority, presided over a high-level United Nations Security Council open debate on “Threats to International Peace and Security: Conflict-Related Food Insecurity.”
This marks the second time in two years that President Bio has addressed the Council during Sierra Leone’s tenure. In his remarks, he warned that hunger is increasingly being weaponized in conflicts and called for stronger global action to prevent the deliberate starvation of civilians. He emphasized that such acts are prohibited under international law and constitute war crimes.
Hunger as a Weapon of War
President Bio highlighted the devastating impact of conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Ukraine, and the Sahel, noting that food systems are being destroyed, livelihoods shattered, and humanitarian crises deepened. He described starvation as a “slow, silent, corrosive” form of violence that fuels instability, displacement, and renewed conflict.
Core Messages and National Model
The President outlined three key messages:
- Starvation is not collateral damage but a crime.
- Food insecurity is both a driver of conflict and a peacebuilding imperative.
- Sustainable peace requires investment in agricultural resilience, markets, and human capital, particularly women and youth.
He presented Sierra Leone’s Feed Salone Initiative as a national model, demonstrating that food security is integral to peace and development. The four-pillar programme—production, resilience, markets and value chains, and human capital—aims to boost productivity, reduce import dependence, and build climate-smart systems that secure livelihoods.
Regional and Global Action
At the regional level, President Bio underscored ECOWAS efforts to integrate food security into peacebuilding, early warning, and trade frameworks, including the expansion of the ECOWAS Food Security Reserve and the ECOWARN early warning network.
He also proposed six concrete global actions:
- Protect food systems in conflict zones
- Institutionalize early-warning mechanisms
- Safeguard humanitarian access
- Advance accountability for starvation crimes
- Link peacebuilding finance to agriculture and livelihoods
- Empower women and youth across agricultural value chains
President Bio stressed that Africa seeks partnership, not sympathy, pointing out that the continent holds the majority of the world’s uncultivated arable land and significant youth-driven innovative potential. He urged the global community to treat food security as central to peace and security rather than a secondary humanitarian concern.
Concluding his address, President Bio called on nations to “ensure that no child is starved into submission, no harvest held hostage, and no community driven to violence by hunger,” urging alignment of moral conscience with international law and collective action.