[BBC] It is just before 15:00 on Saturday in Timbuktu and the intense desert heat has reached its peak.Five years ago, Islamist occupiers were driven out of the historical town - but violent extremists have never been far away.
A few people are browsing through the silver jewellery and leatherwork at a small Tuareg curio market by the security checkpoint at the airport entrance.
It’s on the outskirts of town and both French troops and UN peacekeepers have set up what they call a "super-camp" there. At this sleepy time of day, people are working inside their air-conditioned containers and all that can be heard is the low hum of generators. Then, blaring sirens.
| JNIM (Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) is mentioned, the current local incarnation of Al Qaeda in North Africa. |