Timbuktu

• Occupation of the property by armed groups
• Lack of management structure at the site
• Armed conflict

• Occupation of the property by armed groups;
• Absence of management;
• Destruction of 14 mausoleums and degradation of the three mosques in the serial property.

In progress 

In progress

Total amount granted: USD 100,000 from the Italian Funds-in-Trust; USD 55,000 from the UNESCO Emergency Fund; USD 1,000.000 from Action plan Fund for the rehabilitation of cultural heritage and the safeguarding of ancient manuscripts in Mali

On 18 February 2015, the State Party submitted a brief report on the state of conservation of the property, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/119/documents/. The State Party reports the following:

• 15 of the 16 mausoleums in the serial World Heritage property have been destroyed. Only the mausoleum of Cheick Al Imam Saïd has survived intact, though it shows serious damage to its roof and walls.
• Concerning the three mosques in the serial property, all have suffered from a lack of maintenance during the recent occupation. Local authorities have recently begun to remove nearby piles of garbage around the Djingareyber mosque that had amassed over a period of two years. Sections of the Sankore Mosque’s wall collapsed and the minaret wavered following a suicide bomber attack in Timbuktu in September 2013. The interior wooden beams are now rotten and the walls are crumbling. The Sidi Yahia Mosque has also suffered from the occupation and its collateral effects, including the suicide bomber attack that shattered doors and windows. Its minaret is undermined. Restoration of its secret western door, broken down in 2012 by armed groups, is foreseen as part of the implementation of the 2013 Action Plan for the Rehabilitation of Cultural Heritage and the Safeguarding of Ancient Manuscripts in Mali.
• Taking into account previous comments and recommendations by the World Heritage Committee, the State Party has undertaken a programme of information and local community awareness-raising; study and documentation around the monuments; and emergency rehabilitation and restoration works of various kinds. The official launch of reconstruction work on the mausoleums and other buildings took place in Timbuktu on 14 March 2014. Two razed mausoleums adjacent to the Djingareyber Mosque (but not components of the inscribed serial property) have been completely rebuilt in April 2014 after two months of work organized with Timbuktu’s masons. The reconstruction of these mausoleums allowed an thorough assessment of the cost of materials and their durability and workmanship.

The State Party considers that communities understand the significance of the heritage, and of World Heritage, and fully adhere to the reconstruction/rehabilitation plan shared with them during a sensitization workshop held in September 2014; and that the masons are equipped for the rehabilitation of these earthen sites after a series of workshops on traditional masonry supervised by Malian architects with the support of CRAterre-ENSAG and ICOMOS-Mali.

• In addition to the information included in the State Party’s report, the following activities were also conducted in the framework of the implementation of the joint UNESCO and Mali Action Plan for the Rehabilitation of Cultural Heritage and the Safeguarding of Ancient Manuscripts in Mali,: The team of Malian experts who are supervising reconstruction and rehabilitation activities received a specialized training in France in July 2014. This training was made possible thanks to the financial support provided by the USA (USAID). The tools acquired during this training session conducted by CRAterre-ENSAG has permitted a satisfactory completion of all the required technical and architectural studies, which were submitted to ICOMOS and the World Heritage Centre;
• The rehabilitation of 4 ancient manuscripts libraries started in November 2014 with funding from UNESCO and the Quick Impact Projects programme of MINUSMA. A first library was fully rehabilitated in February 2015 (Al Imam Ben-Essayouti library);
• The last phase of the reconstruction of destroyed mausoleums was launched on 24 February 2015. This phase which will permit to rebuild 13 mausoleums including those that are non-World Heritage components, will be completed in July 2015. The reconstruction sites were visited on 8 April 2015 by a group of Ambassadors and Heads of missions from South Africa, Morocco, Switzerland, Germany, France, European Union, USAID, the World Bank, and MINUSMA.

The continuing progress made in rehabilitating and reconstructing the damaged mosques and destroyed mausoleums, in building awareness and support for the built heritage of Timbuktu, and in ensuring the technical capacity to care for this heritage is well noted. The State Party should be encouraged to complete the documentation work begun in June 2013, as well as the remaining studies and diagnostics that are still required to define the different technical restoration solutions of mosques, and to submit the additional results to the World Heritage Centre, for examination by the Advisory Bodies. The State Party should also prepare a maintenance plan to ensure that mausoleums are sustainably conserved once reconstructed.

Once the situation in the northern region of Mali is stable, it is recommended that the Committee request the State Party to invite a joint UNESCO/ICOMOS/ICCROM mission to evaluate the general state of conservation of the property and progress achieved in the restoration of the mosques and the reconstruction of the mausoleums, and to prepare all the corrective measures as well as a Desired state of conservation for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR).

It is recommended that the Committee retain the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger and continue to apply the reinforced monitoring mechanism.