\n<\/p>\n
Benin\u2019s Interior Minister\u00a0Alassane Seidou has said that Benin\u2019s armed forces have thwarted an attempted coup in the West African nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA small group of soldiers launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilising the country and its institutions,\u201d said Seidou on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaced with this situation, the Beninese Armed Forces and their leadership maintained control of the situation and foiled the attempt,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Benin\u2019s government said loyalist soldiers and national guard had regained control after a group of soldiers announced on state television that they had seized power in an apparent coup attempt.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari said on Sunday that the coup plotters had taken control of state TV only and that the signal had been cut for several minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an attempt, but the situation is under control. Now it\u2019s a small group of military. A large part of the army is still loyalist, and we are taking over the situation,\u201d Bakari told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
A group of at least eight soldiers led by Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Tigri had appeared on screen to claim the overthrow of President Patrice Talon, who has been in power since 2016, as well as all state institutions. They also claimed that the country\u2019s borders had been closed and that all political parties had been suspended.<\/p>\n
The troops referred to themselves as part of the \u201cMilitary Committee for Refoundation\u201d (CMR).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe army solemnly commits to give the Beninese people the hope of a truly new era, where fraternity, justice and work prevail,\u201d said a statement read by one of the soldiers.<\/p>\n
Following the takeover attempt, the president\u2019s office stated that Talon was safe and that the army was gradually regaining control, according to the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a small group of people who only control the television,\u201d the presidency told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regular army is regaining control. The city and the country are completely secure,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The French embassy said at the time of the state TV takeover that \u201cgunfire was reported at Camp Guezo\u201d near the president\u2019s official residence in Cotonou, the country\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n
An AFP journalist in Cotonou reported that soldiers were blocking access to the presidency and state television, as well as a five-star hotel and districts housing international institutions. But there was no military presence at the airport and the remainder of the city, and residents were going about their business, the agency reported.<\/p>\n
Talon is due to step down next April after 10 years in power.<\/p>\n
The apparent coup attempt \u201cdoes not come as a surprise to anyone\u201d, Adama Gaye, a former director of communications at West African bloc ECOWAS, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
He stated that there has been a lot of political tension in the country, with many opposition members imprisoned.<\/p>\n
Talon had managed to \u201celiminate key people in the opposition party, including former President Boni Yayi\u201d, Gaye said, adding that he had designated his finance minister to take over the reins after the next election.<\/p>\n
A number of coups have taken place across the continent in recent years.<\/p>\n
Just last month, army\u00a0officials in Guinea-Bissau seized power in a military coup with General Horta Inta-A named as the head of a one-year transitional government. The country has experienced nine coup attempts since its independence from Portugal in 1974.<\/p>\n
In 2023, military leader Brice Oligui Nguema toppled Gabon\u2019s then-President Ali Bongo Ondimba, a leader whose family had held power in the country for almost 56 years.<\/p>\n
That same year, a coup removed Niger\u2019s Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected leader who ruled for just two years before he was forced out of office. A military government was then installed, led by President Abdourahamane Tchiani.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Burkina Faso\u2019s military leader, President Paul-Henri Damiba, was deposed in the country\u2019s second coup in a year, as army Captain Ibrahim Traore took charge.<\/p>\n
In Mali, General Assimi Goita led soldiers to seize power in a 2020 coup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Benin\u2019s Interior Minister\u00a0Alassane Seidou has said that Benin\u2019s armed forces have thwarted an attempted coup in the West African nation. \u201cA small group of soldiers launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilising the country and its institutions,\u201d said Seidou on Sunday. \u201cFaced with this situation, the Beninese Armed Forces and their leadership maintained control […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}