Abdou Diouf (Wolof: Abdu Juuf) (born September 7, 1935) was the second President of Senegal, serving from 1981 to 2000. Diouf is notable both for coming to power by peaceful succession, and leaving willingly after losing the 2000 presidential election to Abdoulaye Wade. He has been the Secretary-General of La Francophonie since 2003.
Diouf was born in Louga, Senegal, the child of an Hal Pulaar mother and a Serere father. He went to primary and se...
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Abdou Diouf (Wolof: Abdu Juuf) (born September 7, 1935) was the second President of Senegal, serving from 1981 to 2000. Diouf is notable both for coming to power by peaceful succession, and leaving willingly after losing the 2000 presidential election to Abdoulaye Wade. He has been the Secretary-General of La Francophonie since 2003.
Diouf was born in Louga, Senegal, the child of an Hal Pulaar mother and a Serere father. He went to primary and secondary school at the Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis, and studied law at Dakar University and then at the Sorbonne, Paris. Diouf graduated in 1959.
After graduation, Diouf returned to Senegal, where in September 1960 he was appointed Director of International Technical Cooperation. In November 1960 he became assistant of the Secretary-General of the Government, and in June 1961 he became Secretary-General of the Ministry of Defense. In 1961 he joined the Senegalese Progressive Union (Union Progressiste Sénégalaise, UPS), which later became the...
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