UNESCO called Tuesday for a special fund to help Mali protect its cultural sites, characterizing the destruction of mausoleums in the city of Timbuktu by extremists as “repugnant acts. " The World Heritage Committee of the UN cultural organization, meeting in the Russian city of St Petersburg, said it would send a mission to the historic city to determine the extent of the damage, as soon as the situation allowed. The Malian city has been listed as a World Heritage site since 1988. Extremists destroyed seven of 16 mausoleums in Timbuktu over the weekend. The city is also home to libraries housing important Islamic manuscripts.
