21.   Yet today the people living in this sand-blanketed city of winding alleys and mud houses rank among the most poorly educated in Mali and in Africa.

22.   Rahim Bakhsh and his family narrowly escaped death earlier this month when their mud house was caught in a crossfire between security forces and ethnic insurgents.

23.   A cyclone roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Monday, leveling mud houses, flooding low-lying areas and forcing half a million people to evacuate.

24.   A sea of sun-baked mud houses, the refugee camp stretches for miles.

25.   Amir explained he has no heat in his mud house.

26.   But not a single mud house was left standing.

27.   Clouds of pungent smoke waft over mud houses with red tile roofs while men in dark blue uniforms toss leafy green plants onto a bonfire.

28.   Days later, they spotted men carrying weapons to a mud house outside the fence for what they suspect was another planned attack.

29.   Dirt roads around the city were washed away, clogging traffic, while makeshift mud houses collapsed.

30.   Eventually, a light armored vehicle went out to an abandoned mud house where some fire came from.