Some 200 West African soldiers, mainly from Nigeria and Ivory Coast, are in Benin to support the government following Sunday’s failed coup, Benin’s foreign minister says.
The attempt was foiled after Nigeria deployed fighter jets to drive the mutineers out of a military base and state TV headquarters, where they had declared a takeover.
This is the first time that officials have said how many foreign soldiers were deployed to the country, although it is not clear if some have been withdrawn since Sunday.
Benin’s Foreign Affairs Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari on Thursday said some of the regional troops sent to help had remained in the country “as part of the sweep and clean-up operation”.
A manhunt for those involved in the plot is under way, with the leader of the failed coup said to be taking refuge in neighbouring Togo.
The rebel soldiers justified their actions by criticising President Patrice Talon’s management of the country, complaining first about his handling of the “continuing deterioration of the security situation in northern Benin”.
The West African regional bloc, Ecowas, deployed troops from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast to secure key installations and prevent any resurgence of the violence.
Nigeria, Benin’s large neighbour to the east, said its soldiers had reached there on Sunday, describing the coup attempt as a “direct assault on democracy”.
An Ivory Coast security source told AFP news agency that 50 soldiers from the country had been sent as part of the regional deployment.
“There are currently around 200 soldiers present, who came to lend a hand at the end of the day to the Beninese defence and security forces as part of the sweep and clean-up operation,” said Bakari, while addressing journalists in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Thursday.
Bakari, who was speaking alongside Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, said that by the time the Beninese forces called for help, the coup “was already a failure”.
“When we started discussions for the intervention of Nigeria and the others, under Ecowas protocol, our military had already pushed them back,” he added.
According to Bakari, what was required was “precise aerial back-up to carry out a surgical operation that targeted the enemy’s key positions without risking civilian casualties”.
Tuggar said that fast diplomatic, military, and intelligence actions between Nigeria and Benin had helped to foil the coup.
Discussions are continuing over how long the regional forces would remain, but Bakari said any decision “will be taken in close collaboration with Benin’s defence and security forces, who have demonstrated their bravery”.
It is not clear if the French special forces who also reportedly helped loyalist troops thwart the coup are still in Benin.
Under intense pressure after a string of successful coups in the region, Ecowas is signalling that it is no longer willing to watch democratically elected governments be toppled by the military.
Bakari praised Ecowas as “an important tool that allows us to defend democracy and the values of democracy in our regional space”.
Benin’s army has suffered losses near its northern border with insurgency-hit Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years, as jihadist militants linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda spread southwards.
Talon, who is regarded as a close ally of the West, is due to step down next year after completing his second term in office, with elections scheduled for April.
