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Mali: Timbuktu - Mali's Onetime Trade City in Crisis

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Source: Deutsche Welle
Country: Mali

The city of Timbuktu in northern Mali was a famous commercial center until it was taken over by Islamists in 2012. Almost two years after their withdrawal, the city's economy is still in ruins.

Fatimatou Elhassan sits on the dusty ground in front of her house on the outskirts of the city of Timbuktu. Next to her, her neighbor is hammering metal, in front of her are several plastic bowls. Among other things, she is selling onions and chili peppers, as well as oil in plastic bags.

"It's not easy, we are suffering," says the mother of five, pointing to a blue bowl of grain. "Just look at how little sorghum I have here. And even the little I have, I hardly manage to sell. I used to sell six times as much."

Women forced out of work

Three years ago, Elhassan still had six employees. Then in April 2012, Islamists took over the city and banned women from working. Elhassan's neighbor was beaten up when the Islamists caught her baking bread in front of the house. Like many of her friends, Elhassan and her family fled. It was only in early 2013, when the Islamists were driven out by Malian and French troops, that they returned to the city. But ever since, Timbuktu's economy has been in ruins. At every street corner, there are bored teenagers, who are either unemployed or only have occasional jobs.

The only reason Elhassan was able to start doing business again is that, together with a group of other women, she got a loan from the humanitarian organization CARE.

"While the city was occupied, many inhabitants fled and left all their tools behind," Bokary Diallo, a CARE employee in Timbuktu, told DW. "Those were important assets for them and the jihadists destroyed a lot of them."

Too scared to trade

Salem Ould El-Hadje doesn't think Timbuktu is headed for an economic upturn. The retired history professor has written several books about the city. He particularly focused on the golden age when Timbuktu was a significant trading post for salt, ivory and slaves at the edge of the Sahara. Nowadays, hardly a trader dares enter the city and many of the shops at the market remain closed.

"There were a lot of robbers who terrorized people on the routes to Mauretania, Algeria and to the town of Mopti," says El-Hadje. "That is why traders don't come to the city anymore." According to El-Hadje, the most important businessmen and moneylenders were Arabs. "Then many of them were suddenly accused of being jihadists and became afraid to come back."

Kidnappings, hold-ups and robbers

Tourists are also staying away, even though Timbuktu is a World Heritage Site with ancient mosques and libraries. The risk of kidnapping and robberies is high. The government in Bamako is a two-day trip away from Timbuktu and is too weak to control the desert area in the north. And the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA only concentrates on larger cities - Timbuktu doesn't even have paved roads.

But Fatimatou Elhassan is optimistic about her business. The Islamists are gone, and she thinks that is the main thing. Even if the neighbors hardly have the money to buy her wares: the situation will improve slowly but surely, she hopes.

Author Adrian Kriesch / ecs


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