When Al Qaeda took over Timbuktu, and other towns in the north, the new Islamic police would paint over any representation of the human form.  When the French arrived the Islamic militants vanished from the town, leaving behind a few scattered explosives, burnt cars and manuscripts, and these faceless signs. ..The censorship in Timbuktu was comprehensive, though often hasty. Some signs were completely coated in a thick black paint, while others were splashed with a thin coat. The fundamentalist Salafi style of Sharia practised by many Al Qaeda militants prohibits figurative drawings, as do the Hadith.