President Julius Maada Bio arrived in Geneva on Saturday, October 10, 2026, ahead of a two-part diplomatic visit that will see him deliver the opening keynote at the Geneva Peace Forum and give a public lecture at the Geneva Graduate Institute on the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in regional security, according to a statement posted on the President’s official social media pages and reported by Sierraloaded.

The Geneva Peace Forum, the flagship event of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, runs from October 12 to 15 under the theme “Choose Peace,” with sessions touching on climate change and resource governance alongside traditional peace and security topics. Bio said he was looking forward to “delivering the opening keynote address” at the forum’s high-level opening ceremony, though an exact time for his remarks has not yet been published by organizers.

Two days into the forum, on Tuesday, October 13, Bio is scheduled to speak at the Maison de la Paix as part of the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Director’s Global Leadership Series, a programme that brings in international and government leaders to discuss global challenges. His lecture, titled “Building Lasting Peace in Africa: The Catalytic Role of ECOWAS,” runs from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. local time and will be introduced by Institute Director Marie-Laure Salles. According to the event listing, Bio will discuss “ECOWAS’s responses to political and security crises, its engagement with Sahel states, and its work on peace, democratic governance, and development,” followed by a conversation with professors Stephanie Hofmann and Delidji Eric Degila, a student discussion, and an audience Q&A. The Institute’s event page describes ECOWAS’s continuing role as “central to peacebuilding, stability, and economic integration” in a region facing security challenges and democratic transitions.

Bio is the immediate past chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, having led the bloc through a turbulent period that saw Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger withdraw in January 2025 to form their own Alliance of Sahel States. Sierra Leone also held a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2024 and 2025, during which Bio presided over the Council’s August 2024 session. The Geneva trip follows a September 30 keynote he delivered at Harvard Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on “Africa in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape.”

The President’s travel comes as his government manages several domestic pressures. A lecturers’ strike over pay that began on September 16 was declared unlawful by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education on October 9, with universities ordered to reopen on October 12 even as the ministry says negotiations remain open. The Supreme Court is also hearing consolidated challenges to a disputed constitutional amendment bill, and the Ministry of Information and Civic Education has disclosed that 44 government “.sl” domains were affected by an intrusion into a domain management system. State House has not released a detailed programme, delegation list, or return date for the Geneva trip.

Bio’s back-to-back appearances in Geneva give Sierra Leone a prominent platform at a moment when West African security cooperation is under strain, with his remarks likely to be watched closely both for signals on how ECOWAS plans to engage the breakaway Sahel states and for what they suggest about Freetown’s wider foreign policy priorities heading toward the 2028 general election.

Sources: Sierraloaded; Geneva Graduate Institute; Geneva Peace Forum