Benin’s President Patrice Talon met with cabinet ministers on Monday evening for the first time since Sunday’s attempted coup.
The government confirmed that airstrikes by Nigerian fighter jets helped thwart a bid by mutinying soldiers to seize the president. It said the short-lived coup left casualties among government forces and the mutinous troops.
Abuja earlier acknowledged sending jets and ground forces to its much smaller neighbour to help restore order. Both Benin and Nigeria are members of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
Political consultant Morgan Metondji Assogba said ECOWAS would have naturally been keen to intervene to prevent a coup in Benin. “The existing relationship between Benin and ECOWAS allows the latter, while respecting the principle of sovereignty of course, to contribute to maintaining stability,” he said.
Assogba added that this was especially true given the slew of recent coups in the West African region. “It has certainly learned from these experiences, and Benin was supportive of its intervention,” he said.
Benin’s security forces have intensified the search for coup leader Colonel Tigri Pascal, who is on the run, but officials said several arrests have been made. Two senior military officers held hostage by those carrying out the coup have also been released, officials said.
A Nigerian government spokesperson said Talon had requested Abuja’s help, leading to its rare military intervention abroad. Analysts say Nigeria has a strategic interest in defending its borders, which it shares with Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon amid its own security crisis.
They added that Nigeria would be concerned that the collapse of state order in Benin could trigger cross-border insecurity, illicit trade, and arms trafficking.
Despite a history of coups following its independence from France in 1960, Benin has enjoyed relative calm in the past two decades. The country is set to elect a new president in April, as Talon prepares to leave office after a decade in power.