ARTDAILY
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| Burkinabe soldiers pay tribute to six United Nations (UN) peacekeepers who were killed in an ambush in northern Mali, during their funeral on July 10, 2015 at the municipal cemetery of Ouagadougou. |
AFRICA---The UN's cultural wing has reported the destruction of precious mausoleums during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali to the International Criminal Court, its head said on a visit Saturday to witness their reconstruction. Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents seized Timbuktu -- around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) northeast of Mali's capital Bamako -- alongside the west African nation's other desert towns and cities in 2012. They wrecked 16 of its shrines to Muslim saints that date back to the ancient caravan city's 15th and 16th century golden age as an economic, intellectual and spiritual centre. [
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