Timbuktu

Timbuktu, a UN World Heritage Site, was captured by Islamist militants in 2012 before they were driven out, but has once more been under siege in recent years.

Jordan assented enthusiastically, grousing: “You have a judge in Timbuktu, California, who can do some order and some injunction” to obstruct Trump.

Another Islamist militant leader who destroyed ancient shrines in Timbuktu was sentenced to nine years in jail in 2016.

The country has been deep in crisis since at least late 2011, when northern ethnic Tuareg separatists and radical Islamist factions allied to them, took over Timbuktu, Gao and other towns across the north.

Emboldened by the chaos, Islamist groups began seizing urban centers like the ancient desert city of Timbuktu.