A military coup took place in Benin in West Africa four months before the presidential election. The military tried to seize the Benin presidential residence and the state broadcaster, but the attempt fell apart as government forces joined with military support from neighboring Nigeria.
This came two weeks after a coup in Guinea-Bissau, also in West Africa, last month. With this incident, coups and attempted coups in the West African Sahel (the semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert) since 2020 have topped 10.
According to major outlets including AP and Al Jazeera on the 8th (local time), the Benin government said it suppressed an attempted military coup in the capital, Cotonou, the previous day and arrested the ringleaders.
A faction within Benin's military, the "Military Committee for Refoundation," launched a rebellion on the morning of the 7th under the command of Lt. Col. Pascal Tigrie. On state television, they declared they would depose President Patrice Talon, saying they would "suspend the constitution and close the borders."
As the Benin Republican Guard responded immediately, coup forces attempting to enter the presidential office and government troops exchanged fire on the streets of the capital, Cotonou, that day. The situation ended in less than 24 hours after Nigerian Air Force fighter jets entered Benin's airspace and pressured the rebels.
Lt. Col. Tigrie mobilized only parts of the army and the National Guard for the coup. Even the Benin Air Force operates only one transport plane and about 10 helicopters, with no fighters or air-defense systems. It does not have the capability to wage an independent air battle against the Nigerian Air Force.
Right after the situation was brought under control, President Talon said in a national address that "the government has the situation fully under control" and that "there will be no tolerance for acts that undermine national stability." Benin authorities said they have arrested and are investigating more than 10 soldiers involved in the rebellion, including Lt. Col. Tigrie. Government Spokesperson Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji told Reuters that "those who threatened democracy will face the judgment of the law."
The international community voiced concern over a coup contagion, where the region's democratic systems collapse like dominoes, after even Benin—long considered relatively stable in West Africa—was swept up in a military revolt.
Major outlets analyzed that the turmoil was not just a power-hungry military's revolt, but an explosion of structural contradictions across West Africa. They said, in particular, that security ineptitude and a distorted form of democracy are giving the military justification to intervene. The BBC reported that in its statement, the Benin rebels said, "The security situation in the region north of the Sahara is deteriorating by the day, and the government is abandoning our comrades who fell in this area."
Jihadist groups, including Al-Qaida and the Islamic State (IS), which were active mainly in the Middle East, have recently expanded their operations into Africa to avoid U.S. forces. Starting with landlocked states with unstable institutions such as Mali and Niger, they have recently extended their reach to Atlantic coast countries such as Benin and Togo.
Benin's soldiers suffered heavy losses fighting terrorist groups with poor equipment. According to AP, 157 soldiers in the Benin military were killed in clashes with Islamist militants in just the first half of this year. Until jihadist groups emerged in the early 2020s, Benin was regarded as a rare peaceful country in Africa. Germany's Bertelsmann Stiftung said in a report last year that it was "a country without homegrown armed insurgents within its territory."
But as Islamist militants pushed south toward the northern border areas recently, the Benin government deployed large numbers of troops there. Discontent spread within the Benin military, which was suddenly sent to the front. The Guardian, citing an expert on African security issues, said, "The moment soldiers feel 'the government is driving us to our deaths,' the muzzle turns not on the enemy but on the president," adding, "The coups in Burkina Faso and Mali likewise began with military dissatisfaction over failed counterterrorism operations."
Economic deprivation and disillusionment with democracy also fueled the crisis. Benin is Africa's largest cotton producer. According to World Bank (WB) data, Benin posted a 6.7% growth rate last year, a strong showing.
But the macro figures did not trickle down to ordinary lives. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Benin's annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is about $1,500 (about 2.1 million won). A large portion of the population remains below the poverty line.
Bloomberg said, "President Talon is credited with growing the economy, but public discontent has risen because the fruits of growth have not been distributed evenly."
On top of that, President Talon's authoritarian moves poured fuel on the fire. Now in his 10th year since taking power in 2016, Talon restricted the candidacies of leading opposition figures or put them in prison during his re-election bid. For this, he faced criticism as "dictatorship disguised as democracy."
Alioune Tine, founder of AfrikaJom Center, said in an interview with the Washington Post (WP) that "the Benin coup reflects resentment toward entrenched politicians who privatized democracy, not the democratic institutions themselves," adding, "Among Benin's people, there is a growing tendency to view a military coup not as 'a failure of democracy' but as 'liberation from a corrupt regime.'"
This "paradox of democracy" is appearing across the West African coup belt. According to a public opinion survey by the pan-African research network Afrobarometer and the BBC of people in coup-hit countries such as Mali and Guinea, more than 70% of respondents supported democracy while at the same time showing the contradictory attitude of cheering military intervention.
Afrobarometer said, "This double-edged behavior stems from a public that has grown sick of civilian dictators who seek to cling to power through election rigging and constitutional revisions, and now sees soldiers as saviors."