Timbuktu rebuilds mausoleums destroyed by Islamists

[WorldNews]

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Trowels in hand, on their haunches, masons in Timbuktu use traditional techniques to reconstruct precious mausoleums destroyed in an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012. Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents wrecked 16 of the fabled desert city's shrines to Muslim saints that date back to Timbuktu's 15th and 16th century golden age as an economic, intellectual and spiritual centre. After a 2013 French-led military operation drove the jihadists out of the city, the UN cultural body UNESCO began the rebuilding process with the Malian government and other international organisations. "What's nice is that UNESCO did not look for masons elsewhere," said one of the workers at the reconstruction site, around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) northeast of Mali's capital Bamako.

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