Bamako: Timbuktu residents cheered the International Criminal Court's (ICC) nine-year sentence handed down on Tuesday to a Malian jihadist for destroying heritage sites in the west African city.
Judges in The Hague found Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi guilty of directing the 2012 attacks with pickaxes and bulldozers on nine mausoleums and a mosque that have been revered as far back as the 15th century.
"I saw this guy at the time of the attacks. He acted like God on earth. Today, we have shown him that he is nothing, making a good example (of him)," said Mohamed Issa Toure, a young tour guide in Timbuktu.
"Justice has been served to our ancestors, and that's important to us," Toure added.
Others expressed hope that jihadists would think twice next time, with the issue of cultural destruction in the spotlight in Iraq and Syria where Islamic State fighters have destroyed centuries-old sites in recent years.
"It's a good lesson that we just gave to these madmen. He should have gone down for at least 25 years," said Timbuktu youth leader Ali Maiga.
Unesco on Tuesday also applauded the ICC for jailing Mahdi, calling it a "major step towards peace and reconciliation in Mali", while the government said it offered "hope" to "victims of barbarity".
Mahdi pleaded guilty to a single war crimes charge of intentionally directing attacks against a religious and historic site.
The court found that Mahdi was a member of Ansar Dine, an Al Qaeda-linked group routed by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.
The memory of its 2012 takeover is never far from the minds of Timbuktu's residents, who still live with the daily threat of armed jihadist and criminal gangs active in the area.
"Justice is done! We know now that these so-called 'jihadists' are nothing to do with God," said teacher Mamadou Diallo.
For Fahad Ag Almahmoud, a senior figure in the GATIA pro-government armed group, the ICC had not punished a senior figure in the jihadists' hierarchy.
"The ICC, the net that could only catch a little fish," he tweeted, referring to the far graver human rights abuses perpetrated against Mali's population since 2012.