Benin’s government on Sunday said that it had thwarted an attempted coup, after a group of soldiers announced on state television that they had ousted President Patrice Talon.
West Africa has experienced a number of coups in recent years, including in Benin’s northern neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Mali, Guinea and, most recently, Guinea-Bissau.
Talon, a 67-year-old former businessman dubbed the “cotton king of Cotonou”, is due to hand over power in April next year after 10 years in office marked by solid economic growth but also a surge in jihadist violence.
Early on Sunday, soldiers calling themselves the “Military Committee for Refoundation” (CMR), said on state television that they had met and decided that “Mr Patrice Talon is removed from office as president of the republic”.
But shortly after the announcement, a source close to Talon told AFP the president was safe and condemned the coup plotters as “a small group of people who only control the television”.
“The regular army is regaining control. The city (Cotonou) and the country are completely secure,” they said. “It’s just a matter of time before everything returns to normal. The clean-up is progressing well.”
On the streets of Cotonou, the situation remained unclear by midday on Sunday. AFP correspondents reported hearing gunfire while soldiers blocked access to the presidential offices, even as residents elsewhere went about their business.
Interior Minister Alassane Seidou described the soldiers’ announcement as “a mutiny” aimed at “destabilising the country and its institutions”.