India, May 12 -- Islamist terror in the Sahel is not a new phenomenon. It has been gaining ground for long. While fighting major wars in West Asia, Afghanistan and Syria - catalysed by democratic deficit and fast decline of liberal world order - the Western powers have hardly paid serious attention to the Sahel terror. Today, for many of the global powers, jehad in this part of Africa is "a forgotten war". Despite an onslaught of deadly attacks coming from a matrix of Islamist radicals, the regional Governments are either not been able to counter them or at times not willing to nip the terrorist organisations in the bud.

The Sahel, a vast sub-Saharn scrubland, has witnessed the emergence of a number of jehadi groups over the years. By ea...