The Interior Ministry of Benin announced on Sunday that an attempted military coup against President Patrice Talon had been thwarted.
Talon, speaking from an undisclosed location, said the perpetrators were “fleeing” and vowed to rescue any prisoners they had taken.
Benin is a small country in West Africa, a former French colony sandwiched between Nigeria to the east, Niger to the north, and Burkina Faso and Togo to the west.
The region has undergone a string of coups over the past few years, including in Burkina Faso, which fell to a military junta in 2022, and Niger, where power was seized by the military in 2023. The most recent coup was in Guinea-Bissau, whose civilian government was overthrown after a disputed election in November.
The Benin coup attempt began with reports of sporadic gunfire and several large explosions in Cotonou, the nation’s largest city, on Sunday. The official capital of Benin is Porto Novo, but Cotonou is the economic capital and the president’s official residence is located there.
A group of soldiers calling themselves the “Military Committee for Refoundation” (CMR, using its French acronym) seized control of a state television station on Sunday to announce they had overthrown Talon, who was elected in 2016 and re-elected to a second term in 2021.
International observers viewed Talon’s re-election in 2021 with suspicion as his government took an authoritarian turn and outlawed most of his leading political adversaries. He is constitutionally limited to two terms and scheduled to leave office in April 2026. Opposition leaders claim he is scheming to extend his current term and create a new legislative body from which he could continue to exercise power after leaving the presidency.
The would-be junta implied it had overthrown a dictator in its televised statement on Sunday, replacing the president with Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri, a previously obscure mid-level officer who emerged as leader of the coup.
“The army solemnly commits to give the Beninese people the hope of a truly new era, where fraternity, justice, and work prevail,” the CMR said in its prepared statement.
The CMR complained about soldiers killed while fighting jihadis linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in northern Benin and accused Talon of showing “ignorance and neglect” toward their fallen “brothers in arms.”
Tigri appeared in the television address, announcing he had removed Talon from office, suspended the national constitution, dissolved the old government, and sealed Benin’s borders. He claimed these steps were necessary to “re-found the nation” and “restore popular sovereignty” after years of failed economic and security policies from Talon.
The coup attempt did not last long. The CMR’s hijacked television broadcast was abruptly cut off mid-transmission. Although Talon had not been seen in public since Sunday morning, the government said he was safe. Interior Minister Alassane Seidou issued an online video statement on Sunday evening announcing the coup attempt had been thwarted.
“In the early morning of Sunday, December 7, 2025, a small group of soldiers launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilizing the state and its institutions. Faced with this situation, the Beninese armed forces and their hierarchy, faithful to their oath, remained committed to the republic,” he said.
Seidou said this prompt and forceful response from loyal military officers allowed them to “maintain control of the situation and thwart the attempt,” so the populace was advised to “go about their business as usual.”
“This is a small group of people who only control the television. The regular army is regaining control. The city and the country are completely secure. It’s just a matter of time before everything returns to normal. The clean-up is progressing well,” a government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday.
Talon resurfaced in his own video statement on Sunday evening, implying that some casualties occurred and hostages had been taken during the brief “mutiny.”
“I would like to commend the sense of duty demonstrated by our army and its leaders, who have remained… loyal to the nation,” he said.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to express my condolences to the victims of this senseless adventure, as well as to those still being held by the fleeing mutineers. I assure them that we will do everything in our power to find them safe and sound,” the president said.
Eight mutinous soldiers appeared in the video broadcast on Sunday, including coup leader Tigri, and only 14 arrests had been announced as of Monday morning, but the response from neighboring Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suggested a much larger threat had been neutralized.
ECOWAS said on Sunday it was sending troops from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Ghana to “preserve constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Benin.”
Nigerian officials said three fighter jets were sent across the border on Sunday, at the request of the Benin government, to “take over the airspace, to help dislodge the coup plotters from the national TV, and a military camp where they had regrouped.”
“It took some hours before the government’s loyal forces, assisted by Nigeria, took control and flushed out the coup plotters from the National TV,” said Bayo Onanuga, a spokesman for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
“Earlier today, on my orders, the Nigerian armed forces stood gallantly as a defender and protector of constitutional order in the Republic of Benin on the invitation of the government,” Tinubu said in a statement on Sunday.
Tinubu said Nigerian forces “helped stabilize a neighboring country and have made us proud of their commitment to sustaining our democratic values.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.