Benin’s interior minister says coup has been foiled

By Isa Isawade

The Benin Republic Minister of Interior, Alassane Seidou, says a coup earlier announced by a group of soldiers in the country Sunday morning has been foiled.

The minister said this in a video posted on his verified Facebook page on Sunday.

He says in the video: “In the early morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, a small group of soldiers launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilising the state and its institutions.

“Faced with this situation, the Beninese Armed Forces and their leadership, true to their oath, remained committed to the republic.”

Earlier, a group of soldiers had appeared on Benin ’s state TV Sunday to announce the dissolution of the government in an apparent coup, the latest of many in West Africa.

The group, which called itself the ‘Military Committee for Refoundation’, announced the removal of the president and all state institutions.

The mutinous soldiers further said that Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri had been appointed president of the military committee.

Local media reports from the country’s capital, Cotonu, have indicated that forces loyal to government succeeded in quashing the coup while the coupists who took over the national television were, as of press time, surrounded.

Following its independence from France in 1960, the West African nation witnessed multiple coups, especially in the decades following its independence.

Since 1991, the country has been politically stable following the two-decade rule of former President Mathieu Kérékou.

“Everything is fine,” Wilfried Houngbedji, the spokesperson for the Benin Government, told The Associated Press without expanding.

There is no official news about President Patrice Talon since gunshots were heard around the presidential residence.

Meanwhile, the regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has condemned the short-lived coup in a statement.

ECOWAS strongly condemned what it termed “unconstitutional move that represents a subversion of the will of the people of Benin.”

The body vowed to support the government and the people in all forms necessary to defend the Constitution and the territorial integrity of Benin.

Talon has been in power since 2016 and was due to step down next April after the presidential election.

Talon’s party pick, former Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, was the favorite to win the election. Opposition candidate Renaud Agbodjo was rejected by the electoral commission on the grounds that he did not have sufficient sponsors.

In January, two associates of Talon were sentenced to 20 years in prison for an alleged 2024 coup plot.