Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 2013-01-28
Rebel’s fleeing Mali's ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu as French and Malian troops closed in set fire to a South African-funded library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts.
The city's mayor Ousmane Halle said that the rebels destroyed many priceless ancient books on culture, science and geography and was as alarmed at the destruction. “The rebels sit fire to the newly-constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans … this happened four days ago," said Ousmane.
The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults. Owners succeeded in removing some to save them, while others have been hidden.
Fighters from the “Islamist” alliance in north Mali, which groups AQIM with Malian “Islamist” group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA, had also destroyed ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Muslims, provoking international outrage.
Ousmane was not able to immediately say how much the building had been damaged. The move marked the latest inroad by the two-week-old French mission to oust radical “Islamists” from the northern half of Mali, which they seized more than nine months ago.
The Timbuktu operation comes a day after the French announced they had seized the airport and a key bridge in a city east of Timbuktu, Gao, one of the other northern provincial capitals that had been under the grip of radical “Islamists”.
Timbuktu, which lies on an ancient caravan route, has entranced travellers for centuries, is 600 miles from the capital Bamako. During their rule, the militants have systematically destroyed UNESCO World Heritage sites in Timbuktu.
A spokesman for the alleged al Qaida-linked militants has said that the ancient tombs of Sufi saints were destroyed because they contravened Islam, encouraging Muslims to venerate saints instead of God.
Among the tombs they destroyed is that of Sidi Mahmoudou, a saint who died in 955.
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