Lalla Malika Issoufou

Lalla Malika Issoufou was born on 14 February 1975 in Niamey, Niger. She holds a doctorate in medicine from the Abdou Moumouni University and worked at the National Hospital in Niamey from January 2001 to September 2003. Issoufou studied at Paris Diderot University in 2004-05 and was awarded a diploma in the treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, she also studied at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in 2005-06 and received a diploma in tropical medicine. In October 2011 she was made president of the Tattali Iyali Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that treats infectious diseases in Niger. She is a patron of more than 27 other Nigerien societies and organisations largely related to health, women's rights, children's rights and education.[1]

Issoufou, via the Tattali Iyali Foundation, regularly presents food to the personnel serving in the Niger Armed Forces and their wives during Ramadan.[2] The foundation aims to improve the conditions of women and children in Niger; to improve the nutrition of pregnant women and children under five (and so reduce infant and maternal mortality) and to fight the illegal sale and counterfeiting of medicines.[3] Issoufou has written on the dangers that obstetric fistulas present to Nigerien women during childbirth.[4]

Issoufou is married to the Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou and they have three children.[1] She shares the position of First Lady of Niger with Issoufou's first wife, Aïssata Issoufou Mahamadou.