Timbuktu's embattled citizens head home despite Mali's uncertain future
Their properties have been looted, the city is ruined and the economy
stagnant but Malians who fled in the wake of a rebel onslaught are now going
home
* Charlie English <
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/charlie-english>
in Timbuktu
* <
http://www.theguardian.com/> theguardian.com, Wednesday 22 October
2014 07.00 BST
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<
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/22/timbuktu-refugees
-return-mali-future#start-of-comments>
Mina Alessane remembers the morning the
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/24/mali-tuareg-azawad-mnla-attack
s> MNLA rebels came to Timbuktu. She was standing by the gate of her house
when a column of pickup trucks filled with armed men came past. It was 1
April 2012, and the Saharan city echoed to the sound of gunfire that day -
smoke billowed out of the Malian army camp, government flags were burned and
every building connected with the state was ransacked. The following
morning, al-Qaida-allied jihadists arrived and announced they would rule
Timbuktu in the name of Islam and under sharia law. Many people didn't hang
around to find out precisely what that meant, and took the long desert track
south....
Read it in PDF attachment below:
Berhane
Received on Wed Oct 22 2014 - 07:31:33 EDT