Ablassé Ouédraogo

Ablassé Ouédraogo (born 30 June 1953 in Dabaré) is a Burkinabé economist, diplomat and politician. Ouédraogo served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for Burkina Faso between 1994 and 1999. He is the founder of the Alternative Faso party and has served as its president since 2012, and was elected president of the National Union for Democracy and Development on 8 September 2018.

== Early years and education ==

Ouédraogo was born in Dabaré, Pabré Department, in Burkina Faso's province of Kadiogo on 30 June 1953. Born to a farmer, he was raised in a Muslim Mossi family in Moaga. He attended Cercle de Boussé for primary school then Lycée Philippe Zinda Kaboré in Ouagadougou, where he earned a Baccalauréat in Economics and Social Sciences. He studied economics at the National University of Gabon on a scholarship from the Association of African Universities from 1973 to 1975 and received a diploma in general economics. He then pursued his doctorate in development economics at the University of Nice in France and successfully defended his dissertation, "Multinational firms and the industrialization of developing countries," on 15 December 1981 with high honors. After returning to Burkina Faso...