\nBenin, Republic, Narrowly, Dodges, Military<\/span>
\nBenin Republic Narrowly Dodges Military Coup as Mutinous Soldiers Storm State TV in Failed Power Grab.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n By: Juba Global News Network<\/strong> In a grim echo of West Africa\u2019s ongoing instability, Benin just barely managed to sidestep a military coup d\u2019\u00e9tat on the night of December 7, after a band of rebellious soldiers briefly took over the studios of the state-run Benin Television (BTV) in Cotonou, the commercial hub. Around 8:17 pm local time, troops\u2014heavily armed and clad in fatigues\u2014burst into the headquarters of the national broadcaster. Forcing BTV technicians at gunpoint, the mutineers had a pre-recorded message played, declaring \u201cthe immediate dissolution of all institutions of the Republic\u201d and the creation of a so-called \u201cNational Redemption Committee.\u201d The message, which ran for less than four minutes, insisted that the armed forces had stepped in to \u201csave the nation from collapse, corruption, and foreign meddling.\u201d<\/p>\n Within minutes of the broadcast, loyalists from the Republican Guard and the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) rushed to surround the TV complex, engaging the mutineers in a brief but fierce gunfight. By 9:05 pm, the army\u2019s high command put out a statement saying the situation was \u201cfully under control,\u201d confirming that at least twelve soldiers\u2014among them a colonel singled out as the ringleader\u2014had been arrested. Two of the mutineers died in the shootout, while three loyalist troops picked up injuries that, fortunately, weren\u2019t life-threatening.<\/p>\n President Patrice Talon, speaking from the Palais de la Marina at 10:30 pm, labeled the incident \u201ca desperate and treasonous act by a handful of misguided officers\u201d and promised that authorities would \u201chunt down the sponsors and accomplices to the full extent of the law.\u201d He stressed that the coup bid had been \u201ccrushed in record time,\u201d giving credit to the professionalism and loyalty of Benin\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n Military sources, who preferred to remain unnamed, hinted that intelligence units had noticed odd movements among certain mid-level officers in the past few weeks, but the sheer boldness and speed of Sunday night\u2019s move still managed to catch many off guard. Early findings suggest the would-be plotters might have banked on widespread unrest in the lower ranks, fueled by delayed promotions, poor living conditions, and frustrations over political interference in military affairs.<\/p>\n This failed coup attempt has sent shockwaves through a region still staggering from a series of successful military takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, and more recently Guinea-Bissau. Benin, once seen as a model of stability and democracy in West Africa, had mostly managed to steer clear of the wave of coups that\u2019s toppled elected governments since 2020. Now, though, the latest incident has reignited anxiety that no country across the Sahelo-Saharan belt can truly consider itself immune from the \u201ccoup epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n The international response wasn\u2019t long in coming, or subtle. ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray blasted the coup attempt \u201cin the strongest possible terms,\u201d while praising Benin\u2019s defense forces for their quick action. The African Union, France, and the US all put out statements backing constitutional order in Cotonou. Even UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres weighed in, calling the episode \u201ca stark warning that democratic gains remain fragile in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n Political analysts have pointed out that while President Talon\u2019s government has been praised for major economic reforms and boosting infrastructure, it\u2019s also come under fire for a tilt toward authoritarianism, including edging out major opposition leaders before the 2026 presidential vote. Whether such grievances actually played into the mutineers\u2019 hands is, at the moment, still an open question that\u2019s fueling plenty of debate.<\/p>\n As Benin now enters a 72-hour period of heightened security\u2014checkpoints stepped up across both Cotonou and Porto-Novo\u2014the government\u2019s announced the creation of an independent inquiry commission to dig into every detail behind the failed putsch and to unmask any civilian or foreign support. For now, things on the capital\u2019s streets have settled back to a sort of uneasy calm, but the memory of masked soldiers reading out a coup statement on national TV is bound to stick around\u2014a pretty sobering reminder that, across West Africa these days, democratic stability is anything but a given.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Juba Global News Network Cotonou, Benin \u2013 December 9, 2025 In a grim echo of West Africa\u2019s ongoing instability, Benin just barely managed to sidestep a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[830,842,643,1,782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-economy-news","category-more-articles","category-news","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23306,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions\/23306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1977\/2025\/12\/1000394575.jpg\")
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Cotonou, Benin \u2013 December 9, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n