MALI: The population of Timbuktu holds an arms handover ceremony with the Malian army in the hope of avoiding more civilian casualties

Record ID: 860340

  • Title: MALI: The population of Timbuktu holds an arms handover ceremony with the Malian army in the hope of avoiding more civilian casualties
  • Date: 8th February 2013
  • Summary: CHILDREN HOLDING BANNER
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mali
  • City:
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZFKRHQGYYGWGQWFGLPPYBJAP
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A symbolic ceremony of handing over arms to the Malian army was celebrated on Wednesday (February 6) in Timbuktu, recently liberated from Islamist fighters.
    The army is asking all civilians to turn over any weapons they can find, in order to avoid casualties.
    French forces alongside Malian government troops and a U.N.-backed African force reclaimed the historic city on January 28, after residents had lived through 10 months of occupation by al Qaeda-allied fighters who imposed sharia law.
    Colonel Keba Sangare, the head of Malian forces in Timbuktu, said the arms handover ceremony was to avoid future injuries and deaths.
    He spoke of two children who had been killed while unknowingly playing with a grenade.
    "Sorry for the loss of two kids who manhandled two grenades thinking they were balloons. They both died and then there was one whose arm and a foot had to be amputated," he said.
    Authorities have also put in place posters throughout the towns and schools to warn children of the dangers of ammunition and weapons they might find.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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