KAMPALA: UN cultural agency Unesco announced on Tuesday it was removing the fire-damaged tombs of royal leaders in Uganda from its endangered heritage list, saying it was satisfied with restoration efforts.
The decision on the Tombs of Buganda Kings was passed by the World Heritage Committee at a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh from September 10-25. Housed in grass-thatched buildings on a hillside in the capital Kampala, and revered as an important historical and spiritual site for the Baganda people, the tombs were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2001. But a 2010 fire devastated the site, and it was placed on the heritage in danger list while reconstruction began with the help of international funding.
It was completed in the summer of 2023 “allowing the site to return to its desired state of conservation”, Unesco said in a statement. “This reconstruction is a collective success: that of the Ugandan authorities, Ugandan heritage professionals, but also the local communities who were at the heart of the process,” said Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay.