ABUJA (Realist English). Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has confirmed that his country deployed fighter jets and ground forces to neighbouring Benin to help suppress an attempted military takeover by a group of Beninese soldiers.
In a statement on Sunday, Tinubu’s office said the intervention followed two formal requests for assistance from President Patrice Talon’s government — including an urgent call for immediate Nigerian air support as the coup plotters attempted to seize the national broadcaster and regroup at a military facility.
Tinubu first ordered Nigerian aircraft to enter Beninese airspace and “take control of the skies” to dislodge the mutineers, the statement said. Ground forces were deployed shortly afterward at Cotonou’s request to help “protect constitutional institutions and contain armed groups.”
The Nigerian leader praised his troops, saying they helped “stabilise a neighbouring country” at a critical moment.
The announcement came shortly after Talon appeared on national television to declare the coup attempt defeated. He said loyal forces had “recaptured our positions” and cleared the final pockets of resistance. “This treachery will not go unpunished,” Talon warned, adding that several people were being held by the fleeing mutineers.
Beninese authorities said 14 suspects had been arrested by Sunday afternoon. A security source told AFP that the detainees were mostly active-duty soldiers, with one former serviceman also in custody. It was unclear whether the alleged coup leader, Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri, had been apprehended.
Benin remained largely calm after brief episodes of gunfire in Cotonou earlier in the day, residents reported.
Regional response
The unrest marks the latest challenge to democratic governance in West Africa, where militaries have seized power in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and, most recently, Guinea-Bissau. Benin, which last saw a successful coup in 1972, had been considered an outlier in a turbulent region.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union swiftly condemned the attempted takeover. ECOWAS later announced it had ordered the immediate deployment of elements of its standby force — with troops from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Ghana — to support Benin’s authorities and safeguard the country’s territorial integrity.
The failed coup comes just months before Benin’s April presidential election, which is expected to conclude Talon’s tenure. A new constitution adopted last month extended presidential terms from five to seven years and created a Senate — reforms critics have labelled a power consolidation effort. The ruling coalition has nominated Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni as its candidate, while the opposition’s nominee was disqualified by a court.
Analysts say political tensions across the region have heightened the risk of instability. Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim of the International Crisis Group told Al Jazeera that many African coups reflect governments’ failures to uphold democratic norms: “President Talon has accepted to step down where other leaders have sought extra terms. But the disqualification of the opposition’s candidate shows another side of the democratic deficit.”