American military intervention in Cameroon

American military intervention in Cameroon
Part of the Boko Haram insurgency
Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Region, on 14 March 2015
Date 14 October 2015 – present (6 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Cameroon Result Ongoing
Belligerents
United States of America	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[1] Boko Haram Ansaru[2][3]
Commanders and leaders
Barack Obama	Abubakar Shekau Mallam Sanni Umaru[4] Mohammed Yusuf † Abu Usmatul al-Ansari Abu Jafa’ar
Strength
US Army: 300 troops Surveillance Drones	ISIL: Boko Haram: 7,000–10,000[5]

The American military intervention in Cameroon began in October 2015, when President Barack Obama ordered U.S. forces to be dispatched to the region, in order to support African forces in a non-combat role, in their war against Islamic terrorists in West Africa.

Background

From 2009, the slowly simmering Boko Haram insurgency greatly intensified. From 2013 the local Islamist insurgency became large enough to threaten regional stability. In 2015, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram pledged loyalty to ISIL, prompting great American concern.^[6]

2015

With the invitation of the Cameroonian government secured in early October, the US began to deploy 300 troops.^[7] The troops' primary missions will revolve around providing intelligence support to local forces, as well as conducting reconnaissance flights.^[8]

The troops are also overseeing a program to transfer American military vehicles to the Cameroonian Army to aid in their fight against Islamist militants.^[9]

See also

• American-led intervention in Syria
• American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
• List of wars and battles involving ISIL

Notes

References

1. "Boko Haram swears formal allegiance to ISIS". Associated Press. Fox News. March 8, 2015.
2. Sudarsan Raghavan (31 May 2013). "Nigerian Islamist militants return from Mali with weapons, skills". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
3. Steve White (13 March 2013). "Nigerian hostage deaths: British hostage executed in error". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
4. "Nigeria: Boko Haram Resurrects, Declares Total Jihad". allAfrica.
5. "How Big Is Boko Haram?". 2 February 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
6. Crilly, Rob. "Boko Haram swears allegiance to Isil". Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
7. "Obama to deploy 300 US troops to Cameroon to fight Boko Haram | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
8. "US troops deployed to Cameroon for Boko Haram fight". Al Jazeera English. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
9. "US Sending Troops, Vehicles To Cameroon To Combat Boko Haram". Defensenews.com. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2015-10-25.

External links

• AFRICOM Cameroon page