Save manuscripts from the library of Timbuktu.
Kidal resumed, the last stronghold of the rebels

DAKAR – Most of the manuscripts in the collections of the Timbuktu library in Mali are safe. At the end of an occupation by Islamic extremists, which lasted 10 months, the volumes are still intact, despite fears that the millennial manuscripts had been set on fire. Some texts were actually burned , but almost 95 would be intact.

“I can say that most of the publications were not destroyed or damaged in any way. They are intact,” explains Professor Shamil Jeppie, an expert from the University of Cape Town, and expert on the Sahara manuscripts. According to preliminary information, the employees had long since concealed manuscripts in Bamako.

Meanwhile, the French army arrived in the city of Kidal, 1,500 kilometers north-east of Bamako. The news, announced during the night by military sources, was confirmed by the French General Staff. The military entered the city in the morning after taking possession of the airport, for months under the control of the Ansar Dine militia.

Kidal was the last stronghold of the rebels. The French troops are united with representatives of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) who announced two days ago to control the city and that broke away from the Islamist group Ansar Dine. A success for the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, who announced that after the capture of Kidal the French troops will “quickly” leave Mali. The French government has urged that of Bamako to open peace talks with the Tuareg rebels and representatives of the populations residing in northern Mali. The appeal came the day after the announcement of the interim head of state Dioncounda Traorè, who yesterday in Addis Ababa had expressed his willingness to call an election round before next July 31st. “Elections must be held as quickly as possible, with the widest possible participation of all Malians – said France -. Local authorities must also initiate a round of negotiations with the legitimate representatives of the peoples of the North “.

Muhammad Maouloud Ramadan, head of external relations of the Arab Movement of Azawad, representing Arab ethnicity in northern Mali, spoke today on the Timbuktu library. “The UN and UNESCO must form an independent commission of inquiry to uncover the causes of the fire at the Ahmed Baba Institute and who caused it,” he said.

(January 30, 2013)