Katoucha Niane was one of the first African models to grace the Parisian catwalks. She became an international star as the muse to the designer Yves Saint Laurent, who designed many of his clothes with her in mind, and also modelled for other global names in haute couture, including Paco Rabanne and Christian Lacroix.

Her triumph in the French fashion scene in the 1980s paved the way for black models such as Naomi Campbell to follow in her footsteps. But her premature death was an unexpected but not inconsistent end to a life that had been troubled by early female genital mutilation to drug and alcohol consumption in later years.

Niane was born in 1960 in Conakry, a western region of Guinea. At the time Guinea had just become independent from France and was ruled over by Ahmed Sekou Touré. The daughter of the successful historian, Djibril Tamsir Niane, Niane’s first few years were happy.

That changed when Niane, aged nine, was subjected to female genital mutilation, a custom common in some areas of Africa. This torturous experience was lifechanging for Niane, who later wrote that it had left deep psychological wounds. It also led to the rupture of relations with her mother — who had told her young daughter that she was taking her to the cinema — and provoked Niane to found a later campaign against the practice.

The following year Niane was forced to flee Guinea. Sekou Touré’s regime had become a threat to her father who sent her to Mali, where she was to stay with practically unknown contacts. There her childhood was further troubled as she suffered regular sexual abuse.

By this point Niane dreamt of fleeing once again. She was briefly reunited with her parents in Dakar, Senegal, where her father had found work. But the relationship was not a happy one and was made worse when just before her eighteenth birthday Katoucha became pregnant. She married — out of social obligation rather than love — but this was not to last. Niane decided to leave for Paris, and duly did so despite her mother’s warnings that she would not be able to support herself.

Niane proved her wrong. Within four months of arriving in Paris at the beginning of the Eighties, Niane, tall and elegant with ebony skin, had been noticed. It was a landmark step — the first black African to appear on the Parisian books. Thierry Mugler was the first well-known name to offer her work and, known simply as Katoucha, she went on to model clothes for Paco Rabanne and Christian Lacroix as well as appearing on the catwalk for several of the large fashion houses.

It was, however, with the French-Algerian born Yves Saint Laurent that Katoucha would have the most enduring relationship. Described by his fashion empire as “made for haute couture”, she became the muse for his clothing, propelling her to global stardom. Katoucha became known as the Ebony Princess by some and the Peul Princess (after the Peul people of Africa) by others.

The outstandingly successful career hid a more troubled personal life, however. Niane became a frequent alcohol and drug user and was judged unfit to care for all three of her children. In her autobiography, Dans ma chair (In My Flesh, 2007), she described herself as following the road to self-destruction, openly detailing the ongoing effect of the childhood abuse that she had suffered.

In 1994 Niane stepped down from the catwalk to found a campaign against female genital mutilation, Katoucha Pour La Lutte Contre L’Excision (KPLCE). With her children she visited areas of Senegal where the practice still occurs.

She also launched her own range of clothing. In 2005 she appeared on Ebony Top Model, the search for the next black model. Similar to the American programme America’s Next Top Model, chaired by Tyra Banks, her fellow black supermodel, it was broadcast on M6, the French television station.

Last year Niane was cast for the film adaptation of the Senegalese writer Abbas Ndione’s Ramata as well as publishing her frank personal memoir.

At the start of February Niane was reported missing when she failed to return to her houseboat on the Seine after a night out. Paris judicial police confirmed that her body had been pulled from the Seine; it is thought that she fell in by accident.

She is survived by her three children.

Katoucha Niane, model, was born in 1960. She was confirmed dead by French police on February 29, 2008, aged 47