France has confirmed it provided surveillance, observation and logistical backing to Benin’s armed forces during the weekend’s attempted coup, stepping in at the request of the authorities in Cotonou as loyalist troops moved to regain control.
The Elysée Palace confirmed on Tuesday that President Emmanuel Macron took a hands-on role, leading a coordination drive and ensuring rapid information exchanges with regional partners in a bid to offset last weekend's coup attempt in Benin.
Macron reportedly spoke on Sunday with Benin's President Patrice Talon – whom mutinous soldiers had sought to topple – as well as leaders in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone currently holds the presidency of Ecowas, the West African regional bloc that mobilised military support to help stave off the takeover.
Benin was thrown into crisis on Sunday when renegade soldiers appeared on national television declaring Talon had been overthrown.
Armed clashes followed the putsch, leaving dozens dead before Benin’s military – aided by Ecowas forces – managed to restore order.
The latest attempt at a military take-over in West Africa touched a nerve across a region, where a string of coups in recent years have tested democratic resilience and left governments on edge.
The situation “caused great concern to the President of the Republic,” the Elysée said, stressing Macron’s unequivocal condemnation of what it described as a destabilisation attempt that fortunately failed.
It also underlined France’s political support for the Economic Community of West African States, which it said had “made a very significant effort this weekend" to reinforce Benin’s loyalist troops and help reassert state control.
France condemns attempted coup in Benin, president says situation is 'under control'
Opposition reaction
In Benin, the political response was swift. Former president Thomas Boni Yayi, now a leading opposition figure, released a video on Facebook condemning the coup attempt “in the strongest possible terms,” calling it a “bloody and despicable attack on our country.”
Yayi, who governed from 2006 to 2016, reminded viewers that a peaceful transfer of power must rest on one core democratic principle: the ballot box, expressed through free and transparent elections.
Yet those very elections are proving contentious. His party, Les Démocrates, has been barred from fielding a candidate in the April 2026 presidential contest after the Electoral Commission rejected the nomination of Renaud Agbodjo for lacking the sufficient amount of sponsors.
The ruling raises the stakes in a vote already shaped by the impending departure of Talon, who must step down after completing the two terms permitted by the constitution.
The presidential race is expected to pit the governing camp’s candidate – Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni – against former minister and teacher Paul Hounkpè, described as a moderate alternative.
Benin authorities say coup attempt foiled, President Talon safe
Widening risks and shifting alliances
Meanwhile, Ecowas officials are sounding the alarm over deeper structural issues driving unrest in the region.
Speaking after a regular session of the organisation on Tuesday, Ecowas Commission chairman Omar Alieu Touray warned that elections themselves have increasingly become “a major trigger for instability” in West Africa.
He pointed to what he termed a “growing erosion of electoral inclusiveness” in several countries, suggesting narrowing political space could be feeding frustration and, ultimately, upheaval.
Touray also urged engagement with the neighbouring Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – the confederation formed by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after their withdrawal from Ecowas following military takeovers.
All three remain gripped by jihadist violence that continues to spill southward into coastal states such as Benin and Togo.
Negotiating new terms of security cooperation with the AES, he said, would be essential as the region confronts the ongoing threat posed by armed groups along shared borders.
“Our community is in a state of emergency,” Touray concluded, while the region is wrestling with a particularly volatile mix of political upheaval, security pressures and institutional fragility.
(with newswires)
