The United States is sending 300 troops along with surveillance drones to Cameroon to bolster a West African effort to counter the Nigerian militant Islamist group, Boko Haram. An advance force of 90 military personnel began deploying to Cameroon on Monday with the consent of the Yaounde government. The troops will conduct airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the region. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops would provide intelligence to a multi-national task force composed of troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin. On Sunday, two female suicide bombers killed nine people in Cameroon's Far North region, employing a tactic increasingly favoured by Boko Haram. US soldiers would deploy initially to northern Cameroon, near the Nigerian border.