President Julius Maada Bio has warned world leaders that global peace will remain fragile unless the world invests in young people, saying jobless youth are being driven into terrorism, crime and dangerous migration.
Addressing the General Debate of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, President Bio said insecurity grows where hunger, exclusion and despair deepen, and that military spending alone cannot fix it.
“Military action may contain a threat, but it cannot, by itself, build lasting peace,” he told the Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York.
He noted that global military expenditure hit almost US$2.9 trillion in 2025 – the 11th straight annual increase – while investment in prevention, jobs and development remains inadequate.
“The connection between peace and development must therefore move from our resolutions into our budgets,” Bio said.
The President, who doubles as Chair of ECOWAS and current President of the UN Security Council, drew a direct link between Africa’s youth bulge and insecurity.
Sierra Leone has one of the youngest populations in the world, with over 60% under 25. Across West Africa and the Sahel, terrorist groups including JNIM and IS-Sahel have exploited joblessness to recruit in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and northern Nigeria.
“Young people without jobs, skills or a stake in the future become vulnerable to exploitation, smuggling and dangerous migration,” President Bio warned.
He argued that jobs, skills and dignity must be treated as serious peacebuilding, not as charity.
To achieve that, Bio said Africa’s critical minerals – cobalt, lithium and rare earths needed for electric vehicles and clean energy – must create local value. He demanded processing at source, fair value chains, technology transfer and local industry.
“The green transition must not reproduce the extractive terms of the past,” he said.
He cited Sierra Leone’s own civil war, arguing that peace became meaningful not when fighting stopped in 2002, but when communities, institutions and public confidence were rebuilt.
Sierra Leone is currently pushing its Big Five Agenda focused on Feed Salone, human capital development and youth employment, which Bio said aligns with his UN message.
He closed by challenging the UN to make its theme “For All” real.
“The words ‘FOR ALL’ should not remain at the end of this year’s theme. They must become the measure of our work,” he said.
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