Aïssata Tall Sall

Aïssata Tall Sall (born 12 December 1957) is a Senegalese lawyer and politician who served as Foreign Minister from November 2020 to October 2023.

== Early life and education ==

Tall was born on 12 December 1957 in Podor and comes from a conservative Marabout family. She is the eldest of nine daughters and two sons and moved to Dakar for her education after primary school. She studied law at the University of Dakar and when the Bar Council would not integrate them, she and thirty other young lawyers took them to the Court of Appeal and won. She was registered with the Senegal Bar in 1982.

== Career ==

Tall specialised in business law before becoming involved in politics. She was an advocate in a number of political trials against the Wade regime from 2000 to 2012. She also represented Ivorian generals Lassana Palenfo and Ibrahim Coulibaly, former Mauritanian president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, former Togolese prime minister Agbéyomé Kodjo and Malian interim president Dioncounda Traoré. During the trial of Palenfo and Coulibaly, filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako approached her and she portrayed herself in the 2006 film Bamako, about a case against the IMF and the World Bank.

Tall served...