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Benin Government Confirms Multiple Deaths as Coup Attempt Is Foiled
Benin government reports several casualties after a failed coup targeting President Patrice Talon. Clashes, arrests, ECOWAS-backed airstrikes, and rescue of abducted military chiefs highlighted the operation to restore order.
The government of Benin has confirmed that “several” people were killed during a failed coup attempt over the weekend, following violent clashes in Cotonou. The disclosure came on Monday after an emergency cabinet meeting convened in response to the crisis.
According to the government, heavy fighting broke out early Sunday between the coup plotters and the Republican Guard at President Patrice Talon’s residence in Cotonou, resulting in “casualties on both sides.” Among the dead was the wife of General Bertin Bada, the president’s military chief of staff, who himself later died after being critically wounded in an earlier attack by the mutineers.
Authorities said that while about a dozen coup suspects had been arrested, some remained on the run as of Monday evening.
Edouard Ouin-Ouro, the government’s secretary general, said the mutineers aimed to overthrow President Talon, seize state institutions, and disrupt the constitutional order. “They initially attempted to neutralise or kidnap certain generals and senior army officers,” he said, citing minutes from the cabinet meeting.
The coup attempt reportedly began at the Togbin military base in Cotonou, where, according to officials, the plotters abducted the National Guard chief of staff, Faizou Gomina, as well as General Abou Issa, the army’s chief of staff. Both officers were later freed in the city of Tchaourou, more than 350 kilometres from the capital.
In response, the army surrounded the Togbin base on Sunday, conducting “targeted, surgical airstrikes” that avoided harm to surrounding neighbourhoods, the government said.
Benin confirmed it received air support from the Nigerian military and assistance from ECOWAS, which deployed troops from four West African countries. Those forces are now stationed at the Togbin base, which officials say has been fully reclaimed.
“This operation was carried out successfully, without loss of life,” Ouin-Ouro stated, adding that the remaining attackers had fled.
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