“In the early morning of December 25, Christmas Day, Good Friday, you are leaving us,” says Boubacar Cissé, the eldest son of the Malian opponent Soumaïla Cissé. “Even on your deathbed, you kept your smile of solidarity. You came back to us six months and a day after your kidnapping, and two months and a fortnight later, you leave us. A huge crowd listens attentively. The courtyard of the Palais de la culture Amadou Hampaté Bah in Bamako in which was exposed Soumaïla Cissé’s coffin draped with the Malian flag was not large enough to accommodate everyone. Malian and foreign personalities, friends and anonymous crowded by the thousands this Friday 1is January in a rare moment of harmony to pay a last tribute to this great political figure of the opposition who died of Covid-19, on December 25 in France at the age of 71. He was a prominent public figure, three times unsuccessful candidate in the second round of the presidential election, former leader of the parliamentary opposition.
Emotion and sadness
Since the announcement of his death by his family, it is a unanimous tribute that has been paid to him by the Malian nation without any distinction. The friendly parties of his own formation, the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), had sent delegations from neighboring countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Transitional Prime Minister Moctar Ouane made the trip. For the URD youth president, Abdrahamane Diarra, “Soumaïla Cissé was a hard worker, distinct, methodical, intelligent and very humble, who believed in union and in the virtues of democracy”. “For us, your death will be a great lesson in life. In everything and for everything, we will do everything to be like you, ”he promises.
A former opponent, Bocary Treta, president of the Rassemblement pour le Mali, the party of the former head of state Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta overthrown in August, bowed in his memory: Soumaïla Cissé was “a good man and well… Our paths crossed because he was leader of the opposition and I was president of the presidential majority. But when it came to Mali, we found each other. ”
His aura had been reinforced by his kidnapping on March 25, 2020 and his detention for six months in the hands of the jihadists. His fate had become a political cause, and he was released in October, along with the French Sophie Pétronin and two Italians, in exchange for 200 detainees released at the request of jihadist groups. He passed for a serious contender for the presidency at the end of the uncertain transition period underway following the putsch of August 18, in a country in the midst of security turmoil. Soumaïla Cissé is now buried in the Sogoniko cemetery in Bamako.
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