Soumaïla Cissé

Soumaïla Cissé (20 December 1949 – 25 December 2020) was a Malian politician. He served as the nation's Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2000. He stood three times as a presidential candidate, in 2002, 2013 and 2018. He was defeated in a second round of voting each time. He became president of the Union for the Republic and Democracy, a political party, in 2014.
Cissé was born in Nianfuke, near Timbuktu. He married Astan Traore in 1978. On 26 March 2020, Cissé was taken hostage in the Tombouctou Region by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a militant Islamist group. He was released on 6 October 2020.
In late 2020, Cissé was taken to France for treatment of COVID-19. He died in Paris on 25 December 2020 at the age of 71.