Mahamadou Issoufou (born 1951) was President of Niger from 7 April 2011, succeeding Salou Djibo.
Biography[]
Mahamadou Issoufou was born in 1951 to a family of Sunni Muslim Hausa. He was originally an engineer who rose to be National Director of Mines of Niger from 1980 to 1985 and Secretary-General of the Mining Company of Niger, but in February 1993 he entered politics when his Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) party won seats in the government. On 17 April 1993 he was made the Vice-President under President Mahamane Ousmane, but on 28 September 1994 Issoufu resigned after Ousmane passed laws limiting his power; the PNDS left the ruling coalition as a result. He supported Ibrahim Bare Mainassara in his coup against Ousmane at first, but he was later arrested alongside Ousmane and Mamadou Tandja in a pro-democracy protest. In 1999 Mainassara was overthrown and killed in another military coup, and Tandja seized power. Issoufou remained in the upper house of Niger while multiple crises plagued the country, and a 2009 constitutional crisis led to a 2010 coup against Tandja. Issoufou was elected President on 7 April 2011 after an interregnum, and he named Brigi Rafini as his Vice-President.
Under Issoufou's rule, Niger decided to commit troops to fighting the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, fighting against Boko Haram. Boko Haram carried out attacks not only in its native Nigeria, but also Cameroon and Niger along the Niger River. On 17 December 2015, he put down a coup by Nigerien Army Chief-of-Staff Souleymane Salou and Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Haoua, remaining in power afterwards.