Claim: The Sierra Leone president is serving as president of the United Nations Security Council
Source: Sierra Leone presidency on Facebook
Verdict: Misleading
Researched by Alfa Shaban
On November 6, 2025, the Sierra Leonean presidency via its official Facebook page published a post touting President Julius Maada Bio’s leadership footprints beyond the West African country.
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The post read: “President Bio becomes the first Head of State to simultaneously hold three prominent global leadership roles: Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, President of the UN Security Council, and Coordinator of the African Union’s C-10.”
Although the post had not gained significant interactions (102 reactions, 26 comments, and 8 shares), FactSpace West Africa decided to fact-check a component of the claim in the interest of public information and curbing misinformation. The claim about Maada Bio being President of the UNSC had also been shared here and here.
The claim that “President Bio was the President of the UN Security Council” caught our attention, especially because, as an international organisation, the UN gives explicit designations to officials serving on its major organs.
This fact-check report will ascertain who the current president of the UN Security Council is.
Fact-check
The United Nations Security Council is considered one of the most powerful organs of the global body, given its central role in discussing and mediating peace and security issues.
The Council at every point has 15 members, with five permanent (the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China) and 10 non-permanent members who are elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly.
Sierra Leone was elected to the Council in June 2023 to serve a two-year term, which started in January 2024 and ends in December 2025. Sierra Leone, per the Council’s pre-determined arrangement, is serving as President of the body for November 2025.
FactSpace West Africa reviewed UN records and found that while President Maada Bio was congratulated by the UN Secretary General on November 1 “on Sierra Leone assuming the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of November (2025.”
Further checks showed that the president will be in New York later this month to chair two high-level meetings, an open debate on conflict-related food insecurity (November 17) and a Briefing on the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, UNOWAS (November 18.)
UN records, however, showed that president of the Council is Sierra Leone’s ambassador to the UN, Michael Imran Kanu, and not his boss, President Maada Bio.
In a press conference to announce the start of the Sierra Leonean presidency of the council, Imran Kanu was referred to as President of the Security Council in a video description that read: “Press Conference by Michael Imran Kanu, Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations in New York, and President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of November 2025 on the programme of work of the Security Council during the month of November 2025.”
The diplomat also captures the title “President UN Security Council (Aug24, Nov25)” on his X bio, per our checks.
“As President of the United Nations Security Council for November 2025, I have the honour to present the Council’s program of work for the month, which has been adopted this morning,” Imran Kanu said during his opening remarks.
According to available information, while a president can chair a Council meeting, it is often a country’s permanent representative to the UN who serves as President of the UN Security Council when a country takes its turn.
Annalena Baerbock, President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in a post on X on October 31, 2025, referred to Imran Kanu as president of the UNSC. “Today I met H.E. Mr. Michael Imran Kanu, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Sierra Leone in his capacity as the incoming President of the UN Security Council for November 2025.”
Verdict
From the above, the President of the UN Security Council for November 2025 is not President Maada Bio but Sierra Leone’s permanent representative to the UN, Michael Imran Kanu.
