During the last two weeks there has been constant interruption to the work in the Timbuktu libraries because of civil unrest in the city. There has been virtually no news reporting on this, and even the online Malian news agency Malijet has been more or less quiet. What I know comes from the staff of ELIT (Endangered Libraries In Timbuktu) and my Facebook friend Tunbutu Woy, a prominent Timbuktu intellectual, feminist and activist.
It appears it started with a peaceful demonstration by the youth of Timbuktu who were making the not unreasonable demand that a road must be built to Timbuktu. North of Douanza there is in fact not a road in Mali- i.e. the whole of the North- half of Mali- only has tracks like the one above.
Meanwhile other ancient troubles were resurfacing, between Arabs and Saurai, or between 'les blancs et les noirs' as Halimatou, the local manager of ELIT put it to me. The 'Arabs' are not the same as the Tuaregs, but are descendents of Arab tradesmen who have inhabited Timbuktu for centuries. The majority of the population in Timbuktu is the black Saurai (Songhai) tribe, the same people that inhabit Djenne and populate most of the areas around the shores of the Niger .
These confrontations escalated and elements from the Malian army entered the fray: two children were killed and several people wounded when the soldiers fired back on a car, allegedly in retaliation for having been attacked themselves. An army spokesman confirms that a 9 year old and an 11 year old child who were in the car were killed in the exchange.
And according to Tunbutu that is not all: two southern hospital workers (black) were kidnapped by Arabs who demanded a large ransom for their return. This declenched further violence and the hostages were eventually released without any payment.
The situation is now calm.
This unrest has seemingly little to do with the Jihadist threat to Timbuktu, for which the UN troops are stationed there in such numbers. The UN keeps out of it and regards such incidents as inter- tribal skirmishes and simple banditism.
Whatever it is called, it does not inspire confidence for NGO's to return and anyone to invest in new ventures... We, in ELIT, are one of the very few organizations actually still to work in Timbuktu, and I am quite pround of that...
Manuscript No: 3635
Zabūr, one of the Holy Books revealed to the Prophet Dāwūd (David)
Do tell us more about Tunbutu Woy, or as much as you can without endangering her security. She sounds like a fascinating person.
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew more about her. Will try and sor
ReplyDeletet out a meeting in December in Timbuktu- but I only have a few hours there every time!