Four years after Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was sentenced to nine years in prison by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and the destruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums, a delegation from the Trust Fund for Victims traveled to Bamako.
The states that have signed the Rome Statute contribute to this fund. For Mali, 1.8 billion CFA francs will be granted from January 2021 to the tomboukti victims identified after the Al Faqi trial.
About a thousand people, mainly the beneficiaries of the Mausoleum Saints who were destroyed in Timbuktu in 2012 during the terrorist occupation, will benefit from individual financial compensation.
“There will be collective compensation afterwards and it is difficult to say how many people will be affected,” said Aude Le Goff, head of the compensation fund program. But the purpose of this decision is precisely to say that society as a whole has been a victim and must benefit from compensation. ”
Symbolic repairs were decided as well as continued rehabilitation of the mausoleums in Timbuktu. “It is a victory for justice against impunity,” said Kassongo Mayombo, a lawyer for the victims of the Al Mahdi case.
A victory because in the event of war crimes or crimes against humanity, the Fund compensates to the benefit of the victims for the insolvency of the condemned and the lack of funds of the states concerned.
New projects for victim assistance
Despite these advances, Malia’s Mama Koité Doumbia, chair of the fund, wants to go further: “When it comes to help, there are many things that will be done. These are reconstructions, physical care, mental care of income-generating activities that we do. We are doing it in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have done it in Uganda, and we will do it in Mali. ”
In the country, new aid activities are also planned for the victims in the Gao and Mopti regions.
