Unesco has added a number of sites to its list of World Heritage in Danger, with the body raising concerns over sites in Mali, Uzbekistan and Lybia in need of protection at its 40th session of the World Heritage Committee.

Mali’s celebrated Old Towns of Djenné was among the list of endangered sites, with militant insurgency and growing insecurity within the country identified as a major threat for the ancient mud city.

Featuring nearly 2,000 pre-Islamic mud houses inhabited since 250 BC, the Committee said that instability created by active Islamist militant groups were thwarting measures necessary to preserve the ancient site, first inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988.

During the meeting, the Committee also decided to add Uzbekistan’s Historic Centre of Shakhrisabz due to over-development of tourist infrastructure at the site, which was given World Heritage status in 2000.

Shahrisabz, located on the Silk Road in southern Uzbekistan, is more than 2,000 years old and was the cultural and political centre of the Kesh region in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Addressing the decision, the Committee expressed concern over the destruction of buildings in the centre of the Shakhrisabz’s medieval neighbourhoods and the construction of modern facilities including hotels and other buildings which have affected irreversible changes to the World Heritage site.

Five World Heritage site in Libya have also been added to the list because of damage caused by the conflict affecting the country and the threat of further damage it poses.

Made up of the Archaeological Site of Cyrene, Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna, Archaeological Site of Sabratha, Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus and the Old Town of Ghadamès, the Committee noted the high level of instability affecting the country and the fact that armed groups are present on these sites or in their immediate surroundings. It invoked the damage already incurred and the serious threat of further damage to explain the decision.

In Georgia, the previously ‘in danger’ historical Monuments of Mtskheta has been removed from the list, with the Committee recognising Georgia’s efforts to improve the safeguarding and management of the site, which had been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2009.

The 40th session of the World Heritage Committee – chaired by Turkey’s director general of Cultural Affairs Lale Ülker – opened on 10 July and will continue until 20 July.

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