49 Notable alumni of Cheikh Anta Diop University

Fatima Denton is a British-Gambian climatologist. She is the director at the Ghanaian branch of the United Nations University, at the UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) in Accra. She focuses on innovation, science, technology and natural resource management. She partners with countries such as Benin and Liberia to develop and implement country needs assessment missions.

Sangaré Niamoto Ba is a Malian former minister and politician.

Cheick Sidi Diarra is a Malian diplomat.

Sokhna Benga is a Senegalese novelist and poet. She writes in French.

Fatou Kiné Camara is a Senegalese lawyer and women's rights campaigner. The daughter of a magistrate and government minister, Camara has a doctorate in law and works as a lecturer and researcher. She has supported campaigns for reform in many areas of the law and is particularly involved in attempting to increase the availability of abortions and free legal advice.

Talla Sylla is a Senegalese politician and the leader of Action pour la Renaissance/Wallu Askanu Senegal (AR/WA Senegal). He was previously the leader of Alliance for Progress and Justice Jëf-Jël and was that party's candidate in the 2007 presidential election.

Aline Marie Raynal was a French botanist and botanical illustrator noted for studying the taxonomy of parasitic and aquatic tropical plants, as well as plants of the Sahel desert in Africa.

Simeon Aké was an Ivorian politician.

Safiatou Thiam is a Senegalese public health doctor, a specialist in HIV/AIDS and former Minister of Health and Disease Prevention in the government of Cheikh Hadjibou Soumaré.She later became Executive Secretary of CNLS National Council against AIDS

Abdoul Kabèlè Camara is a Guinean politician and diplomat.

Luc-Adolphe Tiao is a Burkinabé politician and journalist who was Prime Minister of Burkina Faso from 2011 to 2014.

Tertius Zongo was the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso from June 2007 to April 2011.

Rosine Sori-Coulibaly is a Burkinabé economist and politician. She served as the minister of foreign affairs from 2021 to 2022. After being in the running to become the prime minister of Burkina Faso, she served as the minister of economy, finance and development from 2016 to 2019.

Karfa Sira Diallo is a Franco-Senegalese activist and writer.

Aurélien Agbénonci is a Beninese diplomat who served in the government of Benin as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2023. Previously he was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Molly Melching is the founder and Creative Director of the Tostan Community Empowerment Program. Tostan (meaning "breakthrough" in the Wolof language) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Dakar, Senegal whose mission is to empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. Her website, Tostan.org, states "Tostan implements a holistic,...

Khady Sylla was a Senegalese writer of two novels, short work, and filmmaker.

Dansa Kourouma is a Guinean politician and has been president of the National Council of the Transition since 22 January 2022.

Aïssata Tall Sall is a Senegalese lawyer and politician who served as Foreign Minister from November 2020 to October 2023.

Ousmane Tanor Dieng was the First Secretary of the Socialist Party of Senegal. He was vice-president of the Socialist International from 1996 until his death.

Abdoulaye Bathily is a Senegalese politician and diplomat. Bathily, the long-time Secretary-General of the Democratic League/Movement for the Labour Party (LD/MPT), served in the government of Senegal as Minister of the Environment from 1993 to 1998 and as Minister of Energy from 2000 to 2001. Later, he worked as a diplomat for the United Nations, and since 2014 he has...

Bernadette Sanou Dao is a Burkinabé author and politician. At age 11, her family returned to Upper Volta from Mali. She attended Kolog-Naba college in Ouagadougou and later Ohio University in the United States and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. From 1986 to 1987 she was Burkina Faso's Minister for Culture. She lives in Ouagadougou. She writes poetry, short-stories and...

Awa Marie Coll-Seck is a Senegalese infectious diseases specialist and politician who served as Minister of Health of Senegal from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2012 to 2017. She also served as former Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and is on the board of directors of several notable global health organizations. She is an agenda contributor...

Nick Thorpe is a British journalist and documentary filmmaker who is the Central Europe Correspondent for BBC News, the main newsgathering department of the BBC, and its 24-hour television news channels BBC World News and BBC News Channel, as well as the BBC's domestic television and radio channels and the BBC World Service. He is based in Budapest and has...

Mamadou Diouf is the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies, the Director of Institute for African Studies, and a professor of Western African history at Columbia University.

Soham El Wardini is a Senegalese politician and former mayor of Dakar, Senegal. She is the first woman to be mayor of post-independence Dakar and the first deputy mayor of the city.

Moustapha Niasse is a Senegalese politician and diplomat who served as the President of the National Assembly of Senegal from 2012 to 2022. He served in the government of Senegal as Foreign Minister from 1978 to 1984 and again from 1993 to 1998. He was Prime Minister of Senegal for a few weeks in 1983, and he held that position...

Moctar Ouane is a Malian diplomat and politician who served as the acting Prime Minister of Mali from 27 September 2020 to 24 May 2021, between the 2020 Malian coup d'état and the 2021 Malian coup d'état. He also previously served in the government of Mali as Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 2004 to April 2011.

Théodore-Adrien Sarr is a Senegalese cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Dakar from 2000 to 2014, and before that as Bishop of Kaolack from 1974 to 2000. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Luc André Diouf Dioh is a Senegalese-Spanish politician as well as a trade unionist and syndicalist. He is known in the Spanish media for being the first politician of African descent elected from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, as well as for being homeless in the past and having to sleep on a beach of the Canary Islands for over...

Sidiki Kaba is a Senegalese politician who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Senegal from 6 March 2024 to 3 April 2024.

Hamadoun Ibrahim Touré of Mali was Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICTs), from 2007 to December 2014. He was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2010. Since 2007, he has worked to fulfil ITU's mandate to 'connect the world' and help achieve the...

Mohamed Bazoum is a Nigerien politician who served as the 10th president of Niger from 2021 to 2023. He assumed office in April 2021 after winning the 2020–21 presidential election and surviving a coup d'état attempt. He was ousted in the 2023 Nigerien coup d'état by members of the presidential guard and the armed forces led by Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, often known by his initials IBK, was a Malian politician who served as the president of Mali from September 2013 to August 2020, when he was forced to resign in the 2020 Malian coup d'état. He served as Mali's prime minister from February 1994 to February 2000 and as president of the National Assembly of Mali from...

Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon is a Beninese politician and businessman who has served as the eighth president of Benin since 2016.

Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, commonly known mononymously as Diomaye, is a Senegalese politician and former tax official who is serving as the fifth and current president of Senegal since 2024. He was previously the general secretary of PASTEF, who won the 2024 Senegalese presidential election in place of disqualified candidate Ousmane Sonko, whom he later appointed as prime minister.

Abdou Diouf is a Senegalese politician who was the second president of Senegal from 1981 to 2000.

Fatou Diome is a French-Senegalese writer known for her best-selling novel The Belly of the Atlantic, which was published in 2003. Her work explores immigrant life in France, and the relationship between France and Africa. Fatou Diome lives in Strasbourg, France.

Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey CBE is a British men's rights activist and novelist known for her advocacy on behalf of both men's and women's rights and for her work against domestic violence. She is recognized for founding the world's first and largest domestic violence shelter in the world, Refuge, then known as Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971.

Karamba Diaby is a Senegalese-born German chemist and politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the 2013 elections to 2025 elections.

Marieme Faye Sall, also spelled Marème Faye Sall, is a Senegalese public figure who served as the first lady of Senegal from 2012 to 2024, as wife of President Macky Sall. She is the country's first first lady to possess full Senegalese heritage by birth and ethnicity, as her three predecessors were of ethnic French or half Lebanese origin.

Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga was a Malian politician who was the Prime Minister of Mali between 30 December 2017 and 18 April 2019. The leader of the Alliance for Solidarity in Mali, he had previously served in the government of Mali as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Amadou Toumani Touré from 5 April 2011 until the March 2012 coup d'état....

Macky Sall is a Senegalese politician who served as the fourth president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024. He previously served as the eighth prime minister from 2004 to 2007, under President Abdoulaye Wade and president of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2008.

Michael Abiola Omolewa Listen is a Nigerian diplomat, scholar, education historian, and civil servant. From September 2003 to October 2005, he served as the 32nd president of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). While president, Omolewa led UNESCO to adopt the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data and the Convention for the Safeguarding...

Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan Listen, known as Femi Osofisan or F.O., is a Nigerian writer and theatre critic, noted for his critique of societal problems and his use of African traditional performances and surrealism in some of his plays. A frequent theme that his drama explore is the conflict between good and evil. He is a didactic writer whose works seek...

Younoussi Touré was a Malian politician. He was Prime Minister of Mali from 9 June 1992 to 12 April 1993 and was the first prime minister appointed under President Alpha Oumar Konaré. Touré was the president of the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), a political party, from 2003 to 2014. He was First Vice-President of the National Assembly...

Simone Ehivet Gbagbo is an Ivorian politician. She is the president of the Parliamentary Group of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and is a vice-president of the FPI. As the wife of Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2011, she was also First Lady of Ivory Coast prior to their arrest by pro-Ouattara forces.

Salif Diallo was a Burkinabé politician who was President of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso from 2015 to 2017. 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...