MALI: U2 front man, Bono, takes to the stage in Timbuktu as Mali raises security for it's desert music festival

Record ID: 819724

  • Title: MALI: U2 front man, Bono, takes to the stage in Timbuktu as Mali raises security for it's desert music festival
  • Date: 17th January 2012
  • Summary: TIMBUKTU, MALI (JANUARY 12, 2012) (REUTERS) TOUAREG CAMEL RIDER PASSING A CROWD OF FESTIVAL GOERS CAMELS PASSING IN FRONT OF STAGE TWO TOUAREGS WATCHING ARTISTS ON STAGE TRADITIONAL TOUAREG BAND PERFORMING
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mali, Mali
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVADIUFX57N300U73J2G01V19NXB
  • Story Text: Western tourists danced among the sand dunes of Mali on Saturday (January 14, 2012) as the West African country sought to put its desert festival back on the world music map despite the threat from al Qaeda allies.
    Once described by Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant as "one of the few honest things I have been part of in a long, long time", the 11-year-old event won international acclaim before a spate of hostage-takings across the region decimated visitor numbers.
    Military aircraft criss-crossed the sky above the venue by the ancient Saharan trading city of Timbuktu as part of a tight security presence aimed at showing that Mali is pulling its weight in efforts across the region to combat al Qaeda.
    "I think it was a good idea to come to the festival as a method of support for the people because they would definitely suffer as a result of the incident in Timbuktu," said Paul Higgins, a 55-year-old from Canada, said of the impact that kidnappings had on the fragile local economy of northern Mali, once boosted by tourist revenues
    "There is more security, and security measures are taken as we could see when driving from Bamako to the north. There were numerous checkpoints that didn't exist last year. I think that security is granted and this is why we came here," said Etzel Werner, a tourist guide from Austria.
    Roughly 300 paying tourists attended, about half the number in 2011 and well down on the thousand-plus of past years. Around three thousand non-paying Malians also turned up for the three-day event, including nomadic Tuaregs.
    Barely months after Mali and neighbouring Niger ended years of uprisings in 2009, the Sahel faced a new security threat as local bandits teamed up with al Qaeda's Saharan wing, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to ply a lucrative trade in ransoms of Western hostages.
    Aside from the impact on tourism, the kidnappings have made it harder for international aid workers to operate in the semi-arid Sahel region which faces regular food crises and has some of the worst health statistics in the world.
    "The local population turned up in their masses, but people were waiting to see more foreign tourists, spending in the country, be it a little breakfast here, or a dinner there, spending for a night at a hotel, or buying some local jewellery made by local artisans, who spend all year making their jewellery," said Shinduk Mohamed Lamine, a local tribal chief, deploring the decline in business brought by the recent spate of kidnappings.
    Bono, of rock group U2, put in an appearance on the opening night on Thursday in what organisers said was a show of support for the event.
    AQIM claimed responsibility for kidnapping five Europeans in two incidents in Timbuktu and the northern town of Hombori last November and is thought to be holding four French nationals taken from the Nigerien mining town of Arlit in 2010. Last week it threatened to kill its prisoners if France and its allies attack its bases in Mali.
    Malian Security Minister Sadio Gassama denied knowledge of any presence of forces from France or neighbouring Algeria on its soil, adding that "discreet contacts" were underway with the presumed kidnappers to negotiate their release.
    This year's headline act was the Tuareg-Berber group Tinariwen, with other acts including Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Toure
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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