[Picture from the same article - copyright
irinnews.org, 23/01/2013. Image Katarina Hoije/IRIN]
23.01.2013. Residents of Diabaly, in the
Ségou region of central Mali, have returned to find their town heavily scarred
from the week of heavy shelling it endured until 21 January.
Diabaly, with a population of 35,000, was
briefly captured by Islamist groups on 14 January, leading to air strikes by
French forces, which officially liberated it one week later. Most Islamists fled
on 18 January.
Resident Mariam Sissoko was one of the
first of those who had fled the fighting to return. “I no longer recognize
Diabaly. Everywhere you look there are burnt-out cars and tanks, destroyed
buildings. The stadium has been completely destroyed. Frontless shops have been
looted,” she told IRIN.
Shelling destroyed dozens of homes and
shops, as well as the principal school’s four classrooms.
On one side street in the town, civilians
surveyed the burned-out wreckages of eight rebel pick-up trucks. The military
camp, which the rebels used as a base, is in disarray, littered with
ammunition, clothes, empty food packages and a few copies of the Koran.
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