BENIN
ANOTHER FAILED COUP
(December 14, 2025)
COTONOU. When is passing the days, it gets up details of the failed coup, attempted on December 7 by a gloup of Beninese army officers, are becoming increasingly clear.
The uprising, which began in the night, managed to occupy the headquarters of the public radio and TV, but not the presidential palace. At six o’clock, the rebels declared they taked control of key points and dismissed President Patrice Talon.
As the hours went by, however, it emerged that this wasn’t true: the armed forces and the National Guard mostly allies with the government, while Nigerian jets bombed the base where the 200 conspirators barricaded themselves.
By late morning, it was clear that the coup had failed, also due to the prompt intervention of soldiers supplied by Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, in addition to the French military stationed in Cotonou.
Unlike what has happened in the Sahel in recent years, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reacted swiftly to prevent another putsch from succeeding.
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THE CAUSES
What are the causes of this new military insurrection affecting one of the most stable countries in West Africa?
According to John Joseph Chin, who studies coups d’état from 1950 to today, there are at least three causes:
1. The growing authoritarianism imposed by the President since 2016;
2. The rise in jihadist violence in the northern regions;
3. The dissatisfaction of the military, which is turning against civilian rulers, and the growing protests of the Z gen against the ruling elites.
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TALON, THE DICTATOR
Among the reasons invoked by the plotters to justify their coup is the “increasingly accentuated despotism of Talon.” The “cotton king” operates with an iron fist against all the opposition.
In 2021, he secured re-election almost without opponents and created a
one-party system.
In November, the National Assembly, monopolised by his supporters, heavily amended the Constitution, extending the presidential term from 5 to 7 years and establishing a Senate of 30 members appointed by the Head of State.
Furthermore, in order to pave the way for his loyal Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni in the next presidential polls, he imposed the exclusion from the run the eventuals candidates of Les Démocrats, the only political force able to defeat him, by the electoral commission.
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JIHADIST VIOLENCE
Jihadist incursions are no longer limited to the Sahel but now also affect the northern regions of countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea. This is increasing the sense of insecurity among the populations living there, exposing the impotence of the armed forces, which are unable to protect them.
These are the reasons that led to the coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
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DOMINO EFFECT
There’s also dissatisfaction within the armed forces of various African states regarding the management of current affairs by civilian elites. This explains the domino effect that has occurred in different contexts, where one coup follows another.
Since September, the military taked power in Bissau-Guinea, halting the presidential election count to restore order to the country.
Before that, in October, the same thing happened in Madagascar to remove an unpopular President.
One day, perhaps soon, other countries could fall into the hands of senior officers, perhaps to untangle complex political knots.
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BENIN
FROM CHRONIC INSTABILITY TO KEREKOU (1963 – 1972)
After gaining independence from France on August 1, 1960, under the name of Dahomey, the country went through a long period of instability due to regional conflicts and the inadequacy of the ruling class.
The first Constitution assigned broad powers to the Head of State, who promised to maintain good relations with the former colonial power. For several years, Paris send substantial economic aid into the territory.
To avoid the negative effects of political fragmentation previously experienced, the first President, Hubert Maga (1916 – 2000), launched a one-party (Parti dahoméen de l’Unité, PDU).
However, when Paris reduced aid and Niger dismissed the Dahomeyan officials working in Niamey, popular riots erupted. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded the country amidst strong regional tensions between the North and the South.
The situation quickly split out of control: on October 28, 1963, Colonel Christophe Soglo (1909 – 1983) carried out the first coup d’état.
Hubert Maga was overthrown and placed under house arrest. On January 5, 1964, Soglo published a new Constitution, and on January 19, Sourou Migan Apithy became President and Justin Ahomadegbé became Prime Minister.
Tension rose again when, in November 1965, Apithy refused to appoint the new President of the Supreme Court. The Prime Minister dismissed him and briefly assumed the highest powers.
Colonel Christophe Soglo staged his second putsch (December 22) to avoid a internal war, becoming Head of State.
Among the goals set by the new regime were the revival of the economy and overcoming the financial distress.
However, the measures adopted triggered strikes. The military left their barracks and overthrew Soglo (December 17, 1967), demonstrating that there were ideological and territorial divisions even within the army.
Commander Iropa Maurice Kouandété formed a “revolutionary committee tasked with overseeing the action of the provisional executive.” A new Constitution was drafted, approved on March 31, 1968, and a presidential regime was established.
Émile Derlin Henri Zinsou was elected Head of State, but the deterioration of the economic situation caused another coup: on December 10, 1969, a military junta, chaired by Paul-Émile de Souza, took power.
On May 7, 1970, a new formula was created: a “presidential council” consisting of three prominent politician.
Hubert Maga, Justin Ahomadegbé (1917 – 2002), and Paul-Émile de Souza (circa 1930 – 1999) were to guide Dahomey together, with one of them becoming President every two years.
Two years later, as agreed, Maga handed the office to Ahomadegbé, who was, however, deposed: on October 26, Major Mathieu Kérékou seized power, judging the presidential council enadequate and quickly imposed his dictatorship.
If, in the 1960s, military intervention was seen as a means to resolve political conflicts, the 1972 coup marked a turning point in the complicated history of Dahomey. The era of chronic instability ended here, and that of a strong, long-lasting regime began.
Under the influence of students fascinated by the French May ’68, on November 30, 1974, Kérékou announced to a stunned assembly of local and political leaders that the country was embracing the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. The following year, Dahomey changed its name to the République Populaire du Bénin.
A new single party, the Parti Révolutionnaire du Peuple Béninois (PRPB), was created, along with a revolutionary national assembly that re-elected Kérékou as Head of State several times.
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KEREKOU’S DICTATORSHIP (1972 – 1991)
Ahmed Mathieu Kérékou (Kouarfa, September 2, 1933 – Cotonou, October 14, 2015), of Bariba people, led Dahomey-Benin for 19 consecutive years.
A career soldier, he studied at military academies in Mali and Senegal, then served in the French army until 1961, when he backed home. There, he became aide-de-camp to President Maga.
After the 1967 coup, carried out by his cousin Iropa Maurice Kouandété, he was appointed chairman of the revolutionary committee tasked with managing the country.
Between 1968 and 1970, he attended the French military school, but Hubert Maga, having back as Head of State, promoted him to the rank of Major, appointing him commander of Ouidah, an army elite paramilitary unit.
In 1972, as mentioned, he seized power by force and proclaimed himself Colonel and President.
Among the first acts of his government, he attempted to incorporate all ethnic components of the country, overcoming the regional divisions created by his predecessors, but over the years, the Northerners ended up occupying key positions in his administration.
His two decades in power were structured into at least three phases:
1. A brief nationalist period (1972 – 1974);
2. A “socialist” phase (1974 – 1982);
3. A period of opening towards the West and economic liberalism (1982 – 1990).
Vast economic and social development programs were launched by the government, but the overall results were modest.
In 1974, under the influence of young revolutionaries, the so-called «Ligueurs», strategic sectors of the economy were nationalized, reforms of the educational system were initiated, agricultural cooperatives and new local administration structures were created.
A fierce fight against tribalism and the remnants of feudalism was undertaken, and an agrarian reform was implemented.
The regime suppressed the activity of opposition forces; state atheism was imposed, even though Kérékou personally often met with the marabout of his original village.
He survived several attempted coups (1977, 1987, and 1988) and avoided assassination on multiple occasions.
As with other states in the region, the economic spell of the 1970s was broken in the following decade: GDP collapsed, as did the prices of export products, and the State, which monopolized production and trade, risked bankruptcy.
In 1984, Nigeria suddenly closed its borders with Benin, causing customs and tax revenues to plummet. Consequently, Cotonou was no longer able to pay the salaries of its civil servants. In 1987, the Government was therefore forced to request a loan from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF was willing to grant it but imposed very tough conditions.
First, a 10% surtax on wages was imposed; then, a hiring freeze in the Public Administration was decreed; finally, excess civil servants were retired.
Nevertheless, the crisis worsened, and a new austerity package was launched in 1989. Popular protest spread, and the regime was running out of steam.
Concurrently, François Mitterrand pressured the leaders of Francophone Africa to abolish one-party rule and open up to pluralism.
Kérékou renounced Marxism-Leninism and conoked the Sovereign National Conference (CNS), which included civil society movements and political parties. It met under the presidency of Monsignor Isidore de Souza, Archbishop of Cotonou, and spent a year redrawing Benin’s institutional framework.
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MULTIPARTY SYSTEM
The CNS repealed the ’77 Constitution and created a transitional regime: Kérékou remained president, but Nicéphore Soglo (1934) was appointed Prime Minister.
The state was renamed République du Bénin. Presidents would be elected every five years by popular vote and could only hold the office for two consecutive terms. Furthermore, at the time of candidacy, they could not be 70 years old, to prevent some politicians from the instability period from returning to the limelight.
In March 1991, Nicéphore Soglo democratically took Kérékou’s place. In the following years, it’s known that Kérékou abandoned atheism and became a Christian again.
In 1996, he ran again and was elected this time with over 52% of the votes, obtained both in the North, his stronghold, and in the South. Re-elected in 2001 in disputed elections, he definitively left power in 2006.
In March of that year, Thomas Yayi Boni, former director of the BOAD (West African Development Bank), assumed the presidency, a position he held until 2016.
At the end of his double mandate, Yayi Boni attempted to impose the Franco-Beninese banker, Lionel Zinsou, as his “dauphin,” but the project failed due to numerous oppositions, even within the presidential party.
Patrice Talon, a wealthy cotton entrepreneur, was elected. The rest is the chronicle of recent years.
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ANOTHER NARCO-STATE?
Like the two Guineas, Bissau and Conakry, Benin could also become a narco-state like others in the region. In fact, vessels loaded with cocaine arrive at the country’s ports from South America and from there take the route to Europe.
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BENIN
GEOGRAPHY
The République du Bénin occupies an area of 114,763 sq km and It is populated by nearly 14 million people and borders Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Togo.
Capital: Porto-Novo, but the main city is Cotonou.
Languages: French, Fon, Yom, Yoruba, Gun, Baatonum, Biali, Dendi, Fulfulde.
Religions: Christianity, Islam, traditional cults including Voodoo.
Main export product: Cotton.
PIER LUIGI GIACOMONI
