Hon. Timothy Musa Kabbah, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, represented His Excellency Brigadier (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio, Sierra Leone’s President, at the First CELAC-Africa High Level Forum, which took place in Bogotá, Colombia, from March 18 to 21, 2026. The forum aimed to strengthen South-South relations between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, with a focus on trade, investment, development, cultural exchange, and environmental sustainability.
At the Ágora Conference Centre, Gustavo Petro Urrego, President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), described the summit as a strategic foreign policy initiative to consolidate bi-regional reconnection amid profound changes in the regional order. He emphasised the significance of a structured, ongoing political dialogue in developing a common roadmap for South-South cooperation, sustainable development, historical justice, and institutional strengthening.
Colombian Vice President Francia Elena Márquez Mina framed the event as a concrete step toward advancing the Colombia-Africa strategy, which serves as the central axis of reconnection with Africa. She stated that the CELAC-Africa High Level Forum aimed to institutionalise bi-regional dialogue and define long-term mechanisms for political, economic, and academic cooperation, rather than simply declaring them.
The forum featured panels on South-South cooperation for development, historical reparations and ethnic racial justice, and trade and investment. Side events supplemented the plenaries with focused sessions on global financing for climate change and energy transition, the African diaspora’s enduring legacies, Afro reinterpretation, and reflections on historical reparations from Afro-descendant and Indigenous peoples’ perspectives.
Delegates also discussed strategic alliances among African, Afro-descendant, and Indigenous women, while youth-focused discussions focused on reestablishing paths to economic justice and a regional exchange on education for development. These discussions aimed to advance inclusive development approaches while also ensuring that reparative measures and cultural recognition were included in bi-regional policies.
CELAC and the African Development Bank signed a memorandum of understanding, signalling concrete institutional cooperation on financing and development priorities. Sierra Leone’s delegation to the forum included Ambassador Amara Shiek Mohamed Sowa, Ambassador to the United States; Franklyn Fawundu, Deputy Director-General Operations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; and Steven Levey, Counsellor at Sierra Leone’s Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Sierra Leone’s participation demonstrated the country’s desire to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a larger effort to deepen South-South cooperation. Sierra Leone officials indicated a willingness to pursue concrete projects in areas such as renewable energy, agriculture, education, and cultural exchanges, with plans to follow up through bilateral talks, working groups, and targeted investment missions aimed at turning dialogue into measurable development outcomes.
