A/HRC/22/33 42. In response, since August 2012, the College of Physicians of Mali, supported by the World Health Organization and the United Nations system has organized several “care caravans” for the people in the north, with the help of volunteer doctors. 43. Some sources have reported that medical staff in Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal work in conditions that are difficult and stressful owing to the presence of armed combatants in hospitals and health centres. The situation is particularly difficult for female employees and patients, including the victims of sexual abuse. It has also been reported that in some centres armed men often interrupt childbirth or surgery and brutalize midwives or nurses not wearing the veil or not wearing a proper veil. For example, in the Timbuktu hospital, men are normally present to make sure that women coming in and out of the building are properly veiled. On several occasions, employees and patients could not gain access to the hospital. In September 2012, a nurse was allegedly abducted from the hospital by armed combatants and forcibly taken to the Islamic police station on the grounds that she was not properly veiled. J. Violations of cultural rights 44. According to reliable sources, the cultural rights of the inhabitants of the north have been radically restricted by armed groups. Music, television and sport have been banned because of a fundamentalist interpretation of sharia. Bars in Gao and in other cities have been closed. Children bathing naked in rivers and women going to the river to wash have been beaten in Timbuktu and Niafunké. A strict dress code has been imposed, requiring girls (from the age of 5) and women to be covered from head to toe. On buses connecting major cities, men and women are now segregated, sometimes by a curtain. Boys and men must roll their trousers up to their ankles. Boys and girls and men and women no longer have the right to appear in public together unless they are married or are members of the same family. Girls and women can no longer ride with men on motorcycles. Islamic police monitor the application of these strict rules and the punishment for non-compliance is flogging. Faced with this situation, many women prefer not to go out. 45. In addition, two days after the city of Timbuktu was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, on 28 June 2012, Ansar Dine destroyed several cultural and religious sites in the city, including the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar, Alpha Moya, Sidi Mokhtar and Cheikh el-Kebir. K. Violation of the right to freedom of religion 46. The Mission was informed by various sources that Christian places of worship in the north, including the Church in Gao, have all been ransacked and looted. Following threats, Christian and animist populations, fearing for their lives, apparently fled upon the arrival of armed groups. VI. A. Situation of human rights in the territories under the control of the Malian Government Violations of the right to life, extrajudicial and summary executions 47. At the Gendarmerie’s Camp No. 1 in Bamako, a soldier who survived the countercoup said: GE.13-10067 13