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.
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-defense.
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 metastasizing 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 organizations in West
Africa," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
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.
Twin suicide blasts on Sunday killed at least nine people and injured 29 in far northern Cameroon.
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