Nigeria welcomes US military involvement

Nigeria welcomed the sending of 300 US military troops to neighboring Cameroon to help the regional struggle against the Nigerian Islamist armed group Boko Haram, on Thursday.

The spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, told AFP that Wednesday's announcement by President Barack Obama was "a welcome development" in the fight against the insurgency launched in 2009.

US forces will dedicate themselves to the intelligence, surveillance and air reconnaissance without a combat mission itself.

Cameroon is part of the regional coalition against insurgents conducting for several months bloody attacks far beyond the north-eastern Nigeria, their historic stronghold in neighbouring countries: Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

"The United States has promised to support the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria and the region. They kept their promise and we are delighted," said Shehu.

The spokesman for the Nigerian army, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said that the commitment of the United States illustrated "how the struggle can be conducted together with the cooperation partners against a common cause, Terrorism that ravaged the region. "

"We call on other nations to follow the good example of the United States," he added.

President Buhari, who has made the fight against Boko Haram a priority since taking office in May, met with top US military official for Africa General David Rodriguez in Abuja on Wednesday.

He supports the deployment of a force formed by five countries of the region, the deployment was expected in late July but has not taken place in the field.

Relations between Abuja and Washington were strained under his predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan after the United States refused to sell arms to Nigeria because of serious violations of human rights which its army is accused of.

Washington, however, provided assistance in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in Nigeria after the Boko Haram kidnapping of more than 200 high school students at Chibok in April 2014.