Hama Arba Diallo (23 March 1939 – 30 September 2014) was a Burkinabé politician, diplomat and civil servant. He was

minister of foreign affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) from 1983 to 1984. Diallo, an opponent of President

Blaise Compaoré Blaise Compaoré (born 3 February 1951)''Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders'' (2003), page 76–77.

, stood as a candidate in the 2010 presidential election.

Career

Diallo began entered the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

as the Director of the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office from 1979 to 1983. After leaving the U.N., Diallo was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Captain

Thomas Sankara Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist–Leninist revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist, who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his deposition a ...

on 24 August 1983, serving in that position until 1984. From 1988 to 1989, Diallo served as Ambassador to China,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and Japan. Thereafter, Diallo returned to the United Nations as the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the Conference on Environment and Development from 1990 to 1992 and as Executive Secretary of the

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through ...

beginning in 1996. Diallo was elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

in the May 2007 parliamentary election as a candidate of the

Party for Democracy and Socialism The Party for Democracy and Socialism (french: Parti pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme) was a registered political party in Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta). In 1999 the African Independence Party (PAI) split, and Soumane Touré formed a ...

(PDS) in Séno Province. He was one of only two PDS candidates to win a seat. In the National Assembly, he sat as part of the ''Alternance-Démocratie-Justice'' Parliamentary Group and served as Fifth Vice-President of the National Assembly. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in 2012, and also served as Mayor of Dori. A member of the opposition to President Compaoré, Diallo remained active in opposition politics and continued working in his two elected posts as Deputy and Mayor until his death on the night of 30 September–1 October 2014. Diallo, who was 75 years old, reportedly died unexpectedly of heart failure.Rémi Carayol
"Hama Arba Diallo, figure de la gauche burkinabè, est décédé"
''Jeune Afrique'', 1 October 2014 .

References

African People Database 1939 births 2014 deaths Burkinabé diplomats Foreign ministers of Burkina Faso Members of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso Burkinabé officials of the United Nations Party for Democracy and Socialism politicians Ambassadors of Burkina Faso to India Ambassadors of Burkina Faso to Japan Ambassadors of Burkina Faso to China 21st-century Burkinabé people {{BurkinaFaso-politician-stub