MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2020) Malian Opposition leader Soumaila Cisse has passed away at the age of 71 due to the coronavirus disease, Mali's transitional president, Ba N'Daou, said on Friday.
"I learned with deep sorrow about the death of our brother Soumaila Cisse," N'Daou said in a statement published on Twitter.
According to the RFI broadcaster, citing sources from Cisse's Union for the Republic and Democracy political party, the politician died in a Paris hospital, where he had been previously evacuated for treatment of COVID-19.
The deceased politician served as the Western African nation's Finance Minister from 1993-2000 and was three times defeated in presidential elections - in 2002, 2013 and 2018.
Notably, earlier this year, he was abducted ahead of the national parliamentary elections by a jihadist group based in the Maghreb and West Africa, which comes as the official branch of Al-Qaeda (terrorist organization, banned in Russia) in Mali. Notably, Cisse was elected to the National Assembly, the country's unicameral country's legislative body, a few days after his kidnapping. Cisse was released from terrorist captivity in early October.
