Barack Obama deploys US military to Cameroon for Boko Haram mission
Washington has largely shied away from engaging its vast military assets to combat Boko Haram.
US President Barack Obama will deploy up to 300 military personnel to Cameroon for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations against militant Boko Haram insurgents, he informed Congress on Wednesday.
In a letter released by the White House, Obama said 90 personnel had already been deployed, marking a modest but significant escalation of US involvement in the fight against the Islamic State-allied group. Washington has largely shied away from engaging its vast military assets to combat Boko Haram, with policymakers wary of fuelling militant recruitment or fusing the group's ties with Middle Eastern Islamists.
In making Wednesday's announcement, the White House was at pains to stress that personnel would not take part in combat operations and would be armed only for self-defence. The onus, US officials said, would still be on a regional coalition that has tried to keep a once regional Muslim anti-colonial movement from metastasising into a regional jihadist threat.
“It will be part of a broader regional effort to stop the spread of Boko Haram and other violent extremist organisations in West Africa,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
It will be part of a broader regional effort to stop the spread of Boko Haram
The mission will last “until their support is no longer needed,” Obama's letter said.
The White House decision comes as Boko Haram steadily expands operations beyond its traditional base in northern Nigeria. An uptick in violence is expected in the coming weeks with the end of the rainy season and amid growing resistance to a nascent multi-national joint task force. Cameroon has been among those coalition countries hit.
