RFI exclusive: Timbuktu's destruction revealed in pictures

RFI’s Moussa Kaka is among the first journalists with an international media organization to report from Timbuktu since it fell to Islamist fighters last week.

RFI/Moussa Kaka

Islamist fighters with Ansar Dine have begun destroying Timbuktu’s World Heritage which includes ancient mosques, mausoleums and cemeteries. Ansar Dine’s quest is to force local people to stop worshipping saints and to accept Islamic Sharia law.

The Malian government lost control of the city in April when Tuareg secessionists known as the National Movement for the Liberation of Asawad, or the MNLA declared Azawad in northern Mali an independent state. The MNLA were then driven out of the city by Ansar Dine.