Freetown, 24th November 2025- Sierra Leone’s President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, has told the United Nations Security Council that food security must be treated as a core peace and security issue, not a secondary humanitarian concern. Addressing a high‑level open debate on conflict‑related food insecurity, President Bio warned that hunger is “a form of violence, slow, silent, and corrosive” that undermines stability worldwide.
“There can be no sustainable peace on an empty stomach,” he declared, stressing that starvation is not collateral damage but a crime under international law. He cited UN Resolutions 2417 and 2573, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute, all of which prohibit the deliberate starvation of civilians.
“The framework exists; what is lacking is compliance and enforcement,” he said, urging the Council to ensure humanitarian access, remove blockades, and hold perpetrators accountable.
President Bio highlighted the devastating cycle in conflict zones where food systems are destroyed, fields mined or burned, livestock stolen, markets shuttered, and prices pushed beyond reach, while hunger deepens grievances and fuels renewed violence. From Gaza to the Sahel, Sudan to Ukraine, and parts of Haiti, he noted, hunger has been weaponised as a silent siege that kills long after the guns fall silent.
Drawing on Sierra Leone’s own experience, Bio underscored the country’s Feed Salone Initiative, which places food security at the heart of national development. The programme rests on four pillars: production, resilience, markets and value chains, and human capital.
“Our goal is not merely to grow food, but to grow peace, putting livelihoods in people’s hands, dignity in their homes, and hope in their communities,” he said.
As Chair of ECOWAS, Bio also pointed to regional efforts to integrate food security into peacebuilding and climate adaptation frameworks, including the expansion of the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve and the Early Warning and Response Network (ECOWARN). He called for a coordinated global food security compact, moving beyond fragmented responses.
Proposing six concrete actions, Bio urged the Council to: Protect food systems in conflict by safeguarding civilian assets such as fields, herds, and water sources, institutionalise early warning systems to track disruptions in production and markets, safeguard humanitarian access and condemn obstruction of food aid and advance accountability for starvation crimes.
He also emphasized the need for linking peacebuilding finance directly to food security whilst promoting women and youth empowerment in agriculture.
“Starvation is never a natural outcome of conflict, it is a choice, a choice to break the law and betray our shared humanity,” Bio said. He concluded with a call for solidarity, not sympathy, noting Africa’s vast arable land and young population as untapped potential for global food security.
“Preventing tomorrow’s wars requires treating food security as central to peace and security, not peripheral to it,” he affirmed. “Let us ensure that no child is starved into submission, no harvest held hostage, and no community driven to violence by hunger.”
