Mali opposition leader and presidential hopeful Cisse dies

FILE PHOTO: Soumaila Cisse, leader of opposition party URD (Union for the Republic and Democracy), speaks during a protest against what they say were irregularities in the first-round vote count, inside the cultural palace of Bamako, Mali August 7, 2018. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo

BAMAKO (Reuters) -The long-time leader of Mali's opposition, Soumaila Cisse, has died at the age of 71, his spokesman said on Friday, two months after his release from lengthy captivity by Islamist insurgents.

Cisse, a former finance minister who finished runner-up in the 2013 and 2018 presidential elections to Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was considered among the favourites in a vote expected in early 2022 after Keita's overthrow in an August military coup.