France provided ‘logistical’ support to help thwart Benin coup attempt, Macron aide says
France provided logistical support and surveillance assistance to help the West African state of Benin thwart a coup attempt that was foiled at the weekend, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders, while France – at the request of the Beninese authorities – provided assistance “in terms of surveillance, observation and logistical support” to the Benin armed forces, the aide, asking not to be named, told reporters.
Further details on the nature of the assistance were not immediately available.
Benin was still searching for fugitive soldiers behind Sunday’s foiled coup attempt that saw a group of soldiers announce on national television they had ousted the president.
President Patrice Talon made his own TV appearance later in the day, assuring the country that the situation was “completely under control”.
Talon, 67, is due to hand over the reins of power in April after two terms leading Benin, which in recent years has been hit by jihadist violence in the north.
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On Sunday, Macron spoke with Talon as well as the leaders of top regional power Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, which holds the presidency of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the aide said.
The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president (Macron), who unequivocally condemned this attempt at destabilisation, which fortunately failed”, said the aide.
The coup attempt follows a spate of military takeovers in the region, including in Benin’s northern neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Mali, Guinea and, last month, Guinea-Bissau.
Benin called on the swift help of neighbouring Nigeria, which said late Sunday it had carried out military strikes on Cotonou and deployed troops.
‘The search continues’
A military source said on Monday that they were “not in a position to say how many” people were implicated in the coup attempt, “nor how many are currently on the run”, but it was “presumed that many of them have fled” to the countryside.
“The search continues,” the source said, adding that “there have been arrests”.
Other sources said there had been around a dozen arrests, and that coup leader Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Tigri was on the run.
WatchBenin’s government says short-lived coup left casualties on both sides
All hostages have meanwhile been “released”, according to the military source.
Two senior Beninese officers, Chief of army staff Abou Issa and army chief Colonel Faizou Gomina, had been taken hostage but were released near the National Guard in Cotonou, the country’s largest city, overnight.
Under Benin’s constitution, Talon is not permitted to run for a third term but his designated successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is considered a favourite for upcoming presidential elections in April.
The main opposition Democrats party has been excluded from the ballot on the grounds that its candidate did not have sufficient sponsors.
Although hailed for spurring economic growth, critics accuse Talon of authoritarianism in a country once praised for its democratic dynamism.
Benin’s political history has been marked by several coups and attempted coups since its independence from France in 1960.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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