Boxes containing thousands of ancient manuscripts are seen in a safe house after their evacuation fr
Boxes containing thousands of ancient manuscripts are seen in a safe house after their evacuation from Timbuktu on July 30, 2013 in Bamako, Mali.> Photo: Marco Di Lauro.On January 30, 2013 the coordinated advance of the French and Malian troops retake Kidal, the last remaining Islamist stronghold in Mali. But as jihadists groups like Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were retreating, they destroyed an estimated number of about 700,000 manuscripts, which have been preserved in Timbuktu. The collections included copies of the Quran as well. Abdel Kader Haidara organized the evacuation of about 300,000 manuscripts to Bamako before the extremists invaded Timbuktu. -- source link
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