Dr Abdel Kader Haidara had just returned to Bamako from a business trip in April 2012, when he heard that fighters from one of al Qaeda’s African affiliates, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had taken control of Malian city, Timbuktu. The manuscripts contained valuable information about the golden age of Timbuktu, in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the great Songhay empire. The militants had vowed to destroy anything they viewed as haram (forbidden), according to their harsh interpretation of Islamic practices. After the French troops invaded the north in January 2013, the militants had destroyed only 4,000 of Timbuktu’s almost 400,000 ancient manuscripts. “If we hadn’t acted, I’m almost 100% certain that many, many others would have been burned,” Haidara said.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 10, 2018 09:45 UTC