U.S to send soldiers early next year to tackle Boko Haram

We will start seeing U.S Soldiers in Nigeria in 2013 as part of efforts to curb  and train countries to battle terrorists. The U.S Army brigade will dispatch small teams to as many as 35 African countries. It is part of Pentagon’s effort to battle extremists.
The small teams will only train and equip and will not be permitted to conduct military operations without specific  approval from secretary of defense.The sharper focus on Africa by the U.S. comes against a backdrop of widespread insurgent violence across North Africa, and as the African Union and other nations discuss military intervention in northern Mali.
The terror threat from al-Qaida linked groups in Africa has been growing steadily, particularly with the rise of the extremist Islamist sect Boko Haram in Nigeria. Officials also believe that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed the ambassador and three other Americans, may have been carried out by those who had ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.