HE institutions struggle as Islamists tighten security noose

An ongoing insurgency of armed Islamist groups is affecting educational and research activities in the northern regions of Mali, particularly Timbuktu and Gao. Since August 2022, Timbuktu and Gao, two large cities in northern Mali, have been under a blockade imposed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM – le Groupe de Soutien à l’Islam et aux Musulmans), affiliated with al-Qaeda.

This, and the response by Mali’s armed forces, has restricted the movement of Mali citizens and legitimate visitors, impeding educational and research activities of higher education (HE) establishments in these two regions. They are also under curfew from 8pm-6am following decisions taken by their governors.

This has impacted the operations of the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, in Timbuktu (IHERI-ABT – L’Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherches Islamiques Ahmed Baba de Tombouctou), created in 1973 following the recommendation of UNESCO.

The institute’s role includes prospecting, conservation, physical restoration and digital conservation of manuscripts; teaching of science and Islamic culture; and training Arabic language instructors.

It publishes research papers and a scientific journal titled Revue Sankoré. This is a reference to the famous Sankoré University, which, until a Moroccan attack in 1591, was regarded as “the best place for learning the Islamic religion with more than 25,000 students coming from various corners of the world”, according to an IHERI-ABT note. It was linked to the Sankoré mosque in Timbuktu, which still exists and where Koranic education of younger pupils continues.

Manuscripts lost in fire

The institute is still recovering from an attack by al-Qaeda-linked Islamists in 2012, opposed to all physical manifestations of faith. According to its general director, Dr Mohamed Diagayeté, the institute lost 4,203 manuscripts through a fire started by the insurrectionists who occupied the town between 2012 and 2013.

As a result, 28,245 manuscripts were then transferred to the comparative safety of Mali Bamako, in the south of the country, and 10,487 surviving manuscripts remain in Timbuktu.

This follows another fire in 2013, which damaged a replacement home for the institute during a battle with French and Malian troops, who then recaptured Timbuktu.

Given the perilous security situation today, Diagayeté said: “We have to recognise that we could also lose more. Because the printed library contains more than 3,000 titles in books, newspapers and magazines [all still in Timbuktu]. But thank God, nothing happened to all these titles,” he said, even though his institute is still coping with the damage.

The curfew does not at present affect the running of evening classes, noted Fousseiny Traoré, manager of a Timbuktu branch of Technolab ISTA (Institut Supérieur de Technologies Appliquées). However, she said the blockade around the city is preventing students and teachers based in Bamako from visiting and undertaking work at the Timbuktu branch.

Reduced mobility of teaching staff, learners

This problem is even worse at the teacher training institute (IFM – l’Institut de Formation des Maîtres) at Diré, 120km from Timbuktu, which is also holding on against a rural Islamist insurgency. “Some of our teachers are absent. It’s been a month since we started classes,” said Adama Dembélé, a member of the committee of the association of pupils and students of Mali (AEEM, Association des Eleves et des Etudiants de Mali).

Hamida Ag Bella, head of the Syndicat des Professor’s de l’Enseignement Sécondaire des Collectivités (SYPESCO) teachers’ union at the IFM agreed, telling University World News: “Today, many teachers have not returned to their jobs,” with the security crisis harming education.

At the IFM in Gao, also under an Islamist blockade, it is a similar story. SYPESCO’s Gao IFM regional coordinator Abdourhamane Touré said many teachers were prevented from returning to Gao after the summer break: “Classes have started, but timidly. There are around 15 of our comrades who have not returned to their posts. We were forced to write a letter to the teaching academy to report this situation so that the authorities did not take sanctions against them,” he told University World News.

Touré said that, even where classes have begun, they are sparsely attended. “The classrooms are empty because of the absence of students who are unable to leave certain localities in the south. This will harm progress within the academic year. It puts us behind schedule in executing the programme,” he said.

Increase in transport costs

Dembélé and Touré both noted an increase in transport tariffs caused by the security challenges, with transport companies having to take additional safety precautions. Touré said: “The blockade found me in Bamako, the capital of Mali,” when he was scheduled to work one week in the capital and then a week in Gao. He spent XOF100,000 (US$167) to Gao (1,200km away by road), compared to XOF30,000 (US$50) in past, more peaceful times.

Alternative ferry transport systems on the river Niger, which links Bamako to Gao, Diré, and Timbuktu, taken by travellers to avoid main road blockades, including light boats, ‘pinnaces’, are now being targeted by Islamists to further reduce the mobility of Malians. “Threats here, embargoes there – all of this makes our work difficult,” Ag Bella said.

The future looks especially bleak, given that the Mali military government in June 2023 demanded that the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali) be wound down – it ended officially on 11 December.

This has created significant concerns for Diagayeté: “Whatever people say about MINUSMA, it also helped us a lot, especially with the logistics and transport plan for our teachers during this crisis. So, with their departure, it will be very complicated. I salute here certain teachers who made sacrifices to travel by land, despite the alarming situation.”

But the blockade around Timbuktu has had serious repercussions for student recruitment at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, he said. “We only had two candidates [this year] compared to more than 40 candidates in previous years. So, the impact of the crisis is enormous on the institute.”

No access to research material

Meanwhile, the institute has had to cope with the suspension of an annual state subsidy over the past two years. “We were unable to publish last year and this year as well,” Diagayeté said.

In Gao, teaching staff are also struggling to research because they lack access to reading materials. Touré said library facilities are scant and the institution’s internet connection is weak and unreliable. Because of the security situation, capacity-building work that had been under way to shift to a “competency-based approach”, which puts student abilities at the heart of learning, has been suspended. “We are evolving with the old system,” Touré said.

Meanwhile, plans, approved in 2022 by the military government which seized power in 2021, to create public universities in Timbuktu and Gao have yet to yield tangible progress. The universities of Gao and Timbuktu were created by laws on 11 July 2022 and signed by ‘transitional’ President Colonel Assimi Goïta. A senior official at the Malian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research would not comment to University World News about these projects.

Hiding behind Islam to sow terror

Meanwhile, many researchers struggle to understand the motivations of Islamist armed groups who are currently plaguing Mali. According to Diagayeté, blockade leaders are taking advantage of the weaknesses of the central state to impose their laws based on principles he does not accept.

“I cannot understand someone who says he comes to promote Islam and continues to destroy Koranic schools and traditional teaching of the Koran. How can we also say that we are there for Islam without building even a single Koranic school, or a mosque? So, these are bandits who only hide behind Islam to sow terror,” he said.