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Mali: Islamists destroy Timbuktu heritage sites
Witnesses in Timbuktu said the gangs had destroyed the mausoleum of a saint whose 15th century tomb was already desecrated in May by members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, another of the groups in control in the north.
“As I am speaking to you, Islamists from Ansar Dine have destroyed the mausoleum of saint Sidi Mahmoud,” one witness told AFP.
“They are now in the process of destroying the mausoleum (of Sidi Moctar),” added a local journalist. “They have said they will destroy everything.”
UNESCO said its decision to place both the town and the nearby Tomb of Askia in Gao on its List of World Heritage in Danger “aims to raise cooperation and support for the sites threatened by the armed conflict in the region.”
Mali has been gripped by chaos since disgruntled troops swarmed the capital Bamako in the south in March and ousted the elected president of what had been seen as one of Africa’s model democracies.
Islamic and tribal Tuareg groups seized on the power vacuum push government forces out of northern Mali, an area the size of France and Belgium, including Timbuktu and the cities of Gao and Kidal.
Mali’s neighbours in west Africa have held several crisis meetings on the situation.
