Timbuktu’s schools open – but under sharia code

Schools have reopened in Timbuktu for the first time since an Islamic faction last month seized control of the fabled tourist outpost, where they are now working to impose sharia law.

Thousands of residents, including the majority of the city’s Christian population, fled the city in early April, when disparate rebel factions invaded the northern half of Mali and declared independence.

Although the rebels initially claimed they were fighting for a separate ethnic-Tuareg homeland, it soon became clear that an Islamic faction had the upper hand in Timbuktu. They have since attempted to impose the strict Islamic code, including the banning of alcohol.

Mahmoud Djitteye, a member of the school district in Timbuktu, yesterday said schools had reopened with the blessing of Ansar Dine, the Islamic faction whose fighters are garrisoned at Timbuktu’s main military camp.

Alpha Cisse, the father of a pupil, said the Islamists are separating the sexes, with boys and girls alternating between morning and afternoon classes. Certain subjects had also disappeared from the curriculum.

“We’re being told certain subjects will be forbidden, like the teaching of philosophy and certain modules in biology, like the teaching of evolution,” said Mr Cisse.