Troops and warplanes deployed in Benin after ‘failed coup attempt’

Original article by Guardian staff and agencies

West African troops were deployed to Benin on Sunday after what the country’s president described as an unsuccessful coup attempt.

Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, said on Sunday that the situation was “totally under control” after security forces acted to end a coup attempt by a group of soldiers who attacked state institutions.

But Ecowas – West Africa’s regional bloc – said it had ordered the immediate deployment of elements of its standby force to the country, which has a population of about 14.5 million.

Soldiers from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being sent to “support the government and the Republican Army of Benin to preserve constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Benin”, the bloc said in a statement.

Nigeria’s air force also struck targets in Benin, the Nigerian president’s office confirmed.

Responding to two requests from Benin’s government, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, “ordered Nigerian air force fighter jets to enter the country and take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the national TV and a military camp where they had regrouped,” his office said.

Earlier on Sunday a group of soldiers had “launched a mutiny”, Benin’s interior minister Alassane Seidou said, “with the aim of destabilising the state and its institutions”.

The soldiers had appeared on Benin’s state TV to announce the dissolution of the government in the latest of many coups and attempted coups in West Africa.

The group, which called itself the Military Committee for Refoundation, announced the removal of the president and all state institutions. Lt Col Pascal Tigri was appointed president of the military committee, the soldiers said.

The rapid mobilisation of forces loyal to the government “allowed us to thwart these adventurers”, Talon said in remarks aired on state TV after the government regained control of the broadcaster.

“This treachery will not go unpunished,” he added.

The attempted coup was the latest threat to democratic rule in the region, where militaries have in recent years seized power in Benin’s neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as in Mali, Guinea and, only last month, Guinea-Bissau.

But it was a surprising development in Benin, where the last successful coup took place in 1972.

A government spokesperson, Wilfried Léandre Houngbedji, earlier said that 14 people had been arrested in connection with the coup attempt as of Sunday afternoon, without providing details.

The attempt came as Benin was preparing for a presidential election in April that would mark the end of the tenure of Talon, 67, who has held power since 2016.

In their televised statement, the coup plotters mentioned the deteriorating security situation in northern Benin “coupled with the disregard and neglect of our fallen brothers-in-arms”.

Talon has been credited with reviving the economy, but the country has also seen an increase in attacks by jihadist militants that have wreaked havoc in Mali and Burkina Faso.