<span style="color: #222222;">In Mali, at least Nine soldiers have been killed in an attack at an army base near the central town of Bandiagara on Thursday night.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">According to a military official, nine soldiers were also wounded, five of them seriously.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mali has been plagued by a brutal conflict that began as a separatist movement in the north but devolved into a multitude of armed groups jockeying for control in the country's central and northern regions.</span><br />''  <br />