Al Qaeda affiliate claims Mali army base attack

A Mali-based al Qaeda affiliate has claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base that killed 23 Malian soldiers last week, its media arm said in a statement on Friday, citing violence against Fulani herdsmen as the motive.Violence by Islamist militants has proliferated in the sparsely populated Sahel in recent years, with groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State using central and northern Mali as a launchpad for attacks across the region.Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JN