Nigeria Deploys Jets and Troops to Benin to Help Foil Coup Attempt

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has confirmed that Nigeria sent fighter jets and later ground troops into neighbouring Benin after Benin’s government requested assistance to repel a coup attempt by a group of soldiers.

According to a statement from Tinubu’s office on Sunday, Benin made two formal requests for help, including a plea for “immediate Nigerian air support.” Mr Tinubu ordered Nigerian fighter jets to enter Benin and, in his government’s words, to “take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the National TV and a military camp where they had regrouped.” Ground forces were deployed afterward at Benin’s request to assist in “the protection of constitutional institutions and the containment of armed groups.”

Benin’s President Patrice Talon appeared on national television to announce that security forces loyal to his government had successfully blocked the attempt to overthrow him. He said loyal forces “stood firm, recaptured our positions, and cleared the last pockets of resistance held by the mutineers.”

“This commitment and mobilisation enabled us to defeat these adventurers and to prevent the worst for our country,” Mr Talon said. “This treachery will not go unpunished.”

Government spokesperson Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji said 14 people had been arrested in connection with the plot as of Sunday afternoon; a security source told AFP that all but one of the detainees were active-duty soldiers, the exception being an ex-serviceman. It was not clear whether Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Tigri, who has been named as the alleged leader of the mutiny, had been captured.

Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Benin’s foreign minister, told Reuters that the mutineers only briefly seized control of the state television network. Residents reported hearing gunfire in parts of the commercial hub, Cotonou, during the events, but the city was reported to be calm later in the day.

The attempted coup prompted condemnation from regional and continental bodies. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union both denounced the action, and ECOWAS announced the immediate deployment of elements of its standby force to Benin, including contingents from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and Ghana, to help preserve constitutional order and territorial integrity.

The unrest comes ahead of a presidential election in Benin in April, which is expected to mark the end of Mr Talon’s current term. Last month Benin approved a new constitution that creates a Senate and extends the presidential term from five to seven years — changes critics call a power grab. The opposition Democrats party also saw its preferred candidate disqualified by a court for failing to secure sufficient legislative backing.

Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy director of the Sahel Project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that recent coups and coup attempts across the region reflect both worsening security and frustrations with democratic backsliding. He noted that contested elections, rejected candidacies and leaders seeking to extend power have all contributed to instability in multiple West and Central African states.