Timbuktu faces humanitarian crisis after invasion by al-Qaeda

One statue has been decapitated, “spiritual” places of worship have been
desecrated and other religions banned, Mr Wakina added.

The city was invaded by fundamentalist Salafi rebels from Ansar Deen and
members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on April
1
and is now surrounded by Tuareg rebels from the MNLA.

Giving one of the first reports from inside the city, Mr Wakina said the city
was plagued by robberies, looting, violence and terrorism.

“The community has been touched to its soul,” he added, explaining that
26 per cent of the population has fled to neighbouring cities and to
Mauritania and Niger, fearful of reprisals that followed previous

Tuareg uprisings in 1991 and 1994. The city was already affected by a drought
which has left the population struggling to pay for the food they need for
their families.

“They need to re-find our dignity which has been ripped away from them,”
Mr Wakina, who is Tuareg, added. “The people of Timbuktu opposed the
rebels but in the face of weapons there was not much they could do.”

Mr Wakina said the “powder keg” had been lit for the uprising by Tuaregs
and other tribes in the North by the return of Malian mercenaries who had
been serving in Col Gaddafi’s army in Libya.

“They demanded to be integrated into the Malian army at the same rank that
they had held in Libya. This was refused and that fuelled the rebellion,” he
added.

But he said that even before the uprising, Arab militias had arrived in the
city and began looting and pillaging, allowing al-Qaeda to take advantage of
the situation to take over the city.

The uprising took hold in just 72 hours, he added but the situation could
change again if a “magical solution” could be found.

“We should not abandon the people,” Mr Wakina, who works with a British
aid agency called Living Earth, said.

He said he hoped that a “Malian solution” could be found which would allow
them to “chase the rebels and the terrorists out of our borders.”

Both the Malian government, which faced a military coup earlier this year, and
the Tuareg rebel groups are riven with divisions but a peace process has
begun in Burkina Faso and the hope is that al-Qaeda can then be driven from
the city.

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