Battle of Timbuktu Battle of Timbuktu The Battle of Timbuktu occurred in Timbuktu, Mali, in March 2013, between Islamist groups and Mali government forces supported by France. On the night of March 20 to 21, a group of Islamist militants tried to infiltrate the airport. A car with armed men also tried to break into the city, however, French and Malian forces pushed them back. The city of Timbuktu was guarded by the Malian army while about 150 French soldiers guarded the airport. Then, about 50 to 100 islamists launched an attack from Bamba, west of Bourem, at March 20 at 10:19 pm.
Timbuktu Manuscripts being sold off. "Time" magazine related the account of an imam who picked up four of them for $50 each. In October 2008 one of the households was flooded, destroying 700 manuscripts. In 1970, UNESCO founded an organization which included among its tasks preservation of the manuscripts, but it went unfunded until 1977. In 1998, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates visited Timbuktu for his PBS series "Wonders of the African World". The series raised public and academic awareness of the manuscripts, which led to a pool of funding opening up. The "Timbuktu Manuscripts Project" was a project of the