On 1 April 2012, one day after the capture of Gao, Timbuktu was captured from the Malian military by the Tuareg rebels of the MNLA and Ansar Dine.[2] Five days later, the MNLA declared the region independent of Mali as the nation of Azawad.[3] The declared political entity was not recognized by any local nations or the international community and it collapsed three months later on 12 July.
On 28 January 2013, French and Malian government troops began retaking Timbuktu from the Islamist rebels.The force of 1,000 French troops with 200 Malian soldiers retook Timbuktu without a fight. The Islamist groups had already fled north a few days earlier, having set fire to the Ahmed Baba Institute, which housed many important manuscripts. The building housing the Ahmed Baba Institute was funded by South Africa, and held 30,000 manuscripts. BBC World Service radio news reported on 29 January 2013 that approximately 28,000 of the manuscripts in the Institute had been removed to safety from the premises before the attack by the Islamist groups, and that the whereabouts of about 2,000 manuscripts remained unknown.It was intended to be a resource for Islamic research.
