France played a key role in assisting Beninese authorities to thwart a coup attempt at the weekend, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron revealed on Tuesday, December 9, confirming French involvement in a regional response that helped foil the latest bid to seize power in West Africa.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders two days after Sunday’s failed putsch. France, at the request of the Beninese authorities, provided assistance “in terms of surveillance, observation and logistical support” to the Benin armed forces, although further details of the operation were not immediately disclosed.
On Sunday, December 7, a group of soldiers stormed Benin’s national television station and announced that President Patrice Talon had been deposed, but loyalist forces later regained control and defeated the coup attempt with the support of neighbouring Nigeria, which carried out military strikes on Cotonou and deployed troops. The attempted takeover came against the backdrop of a wave of recent coups across West Africa that have significantly weakened French influence in the region. Mali experienced coups in 2020 and 2021, followed by Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023, all of which forced the withdrawal of French troops previously deployed for anti jihadist operations.
A successful coup in Benin, also a former French colony, would have been viewed as a fresh blow to Paris and Macron’s standing in the region, where Guinea Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, was also rocked by a coup in November after elections that led to military authorities taking power. On Sunday, Macron held talks with Talon as well as the leaders of Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which currently holds the presidency of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, according to the Elysee aide. The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president, who unequivocally condemned this attempt at destabilisation, which fortunately failed,” the aide said.
ECOWAS has since announced that troops from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being deployed to Benin to help the government “preserve constitutional order,” while ECOWAS president Omar Alieu Touray warned on Tuesday that “our community is in a state of emergency,” citing both the growing jihadist threat and the spate of coups. The bloc had earlier threatened military intervention during Niger’s 2023 coup that removed President Mohamed Bazoum, an ally of Macron, but ultimately did not act, and France also refrained from direct intervention.
“France has offered its full political support to ECOWAS, which made a very significant effort this weekend,” the Elysee aide said. By Monday, loyalist military sources said at least a dozen plotters had been arrested and all hostages, including senior officers, had been freed. Talon later addressed the nation on television late Sunday, assuring citizens that the situation was “completely under control.”
Talon, 67, is due to hand over power in April after completing the constitutionally permitted two terms, as Benin continues to grapple with jihadist violence in its northern regions. On Tuesday, former Beninese president Thomas Boni Yayi, whose opposition Democrats party has been barred from contesting next year’s presidential elections, condemned the failed coup. “I condemn most vigorously and strongly condemn this bloody and shameful attack on our country,” he said, adding that the transfer of state power “responds to a single cardinal and unconditional principle: that of the ballot box, that of the people, that of free and transparent elections,” in a video message shared on Facebook.
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