Salif Diallo

Salif Diallo (born 9 May 1957) is a Burkinabé politician who has been President of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso since 2015. He was a key associate of President Blaise Compaoré from the 1980s to the 2000s, serving in various posts during that period, including as Director of the Cabinet of the President from 1987 to 1989, Minister of Environment and Water from 1995 to 1999, and Minister of Agriculture from 2000 to 2008. He was appointed as Burkina Faso's Ambassador to Austria later in 2008. He also served as Vice-President of the Congress for Democracy and Progress, the ruling party.

Diallo resigned from the CDP in January 2014 and participated in the founding of an opposition party, the People's Movement for Progress (MPP), becoming its First Vice-President. After the MPP's victory in the November 2015 general election, he was elected as President of the National Assembly on 30 December 2015.

Diallo, who was born in Ouahigouya, Yatenga Province, was expelled from the University of Ouagadougou for having organized strikes and protests. He then belonged to the Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party and went on to Dakar, Senegal, to continue his Master of Law studies there. At the University of Dakar, he and other students formed a Committee for the Defence of the Revolution. In 1985 he returned to Burkina Faso and joined the dissident and pro-Sankara splinter-faction of the PCRV, the Burkinabé Communist Group.

Diallo became Assistant to the Cabinet of the Minister of State for Justice in 1986. Diallo was active in the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. From 1987 to 1989 he was the Director of the Cabinet of the President, and from 1989 to 1991 he was Secretary of State to the Presidency. In 1991 he briefly served as Minister of Employment, Labour and Social Security. From 1992 to 1995 Diallo was Minister for the Missions of the Presidency. Subsequently he was Minister of Environment and Water from 1995 to 1999, then Adviser to the Presidency from 1999 to 2000. On 12 November 2000, he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, and on 10 June 2002 his portfolio was expanded when he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Fishing Resources. He was elected as Vice-President of the CDP at the party's Second Ordinary Congress on 1–3 August 2003.

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