January 28, 2013 4:06 pm The main library in Timbuktu is full of
cultural relics—manuscripts that have survived since the 1200s.
They were hidden in wooden trunks, buried in the sand and
finally housed in the small library. But recent reports from the
country say that rebels might have burned that history to the
ground. The Guardian writes: Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the
Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two
buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to
the 13th century. They also burned down the town hall, the
governor’s office and an MP’s residence, and shot dead a man who
was celebrating the arrival of the French military. French
troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on
Saturday and secured the town’s airport. But they appear to have
got there too late to rescue the leather-bound manuscripts that
were a unique record of sub-Saharan Africa‘s rich medieval
history. The rebels attacked the airport on Sunday, the mayor
said. Many of those manuscripts