ABUJA – Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he has deployed fighter jets and ground troops to neighbouring Benin to help foil a coup attempt by a group of Beninese soldiers.
Tinubu’s office said in a statement on Sunday Nigeria’s military intervened in Benin after President Patrice Talon’s government issued two requests for help.
The statement said Benin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a Note Verbal requesting “immediate Nigerian air support in view of the urgency and seriousness of the situation and to safeguard the constitutional order, protect national institutions and ensure the security of the population.”
A second request followed shortly after, asking Nigeria to deploy air assets for surveillance and rapid-response missions under Benin-led coordination.
Benin also sought the deployment of Nigerian ground forces “strictly for missions approved by the Beninese Command authority.”
Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – also said it had ordered the immediate deployment of elements of its standby force to the country, which has a population of about 14.5 million.
Soldiers from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being sent to “support the government and the Republican Army of Benin to preserve constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Benin”, the bloc said in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, Benin’s interior minister Alassane Seidou said a group of soldiers had “launched a mutiny with the aim of destabilising the state and its institutions”.
The soldiers had appeared on Benin’s state TV to announce the dissolution of the government in the latest of many coups and attempted coups in West Africa.
The group, which called itself the Military Committee for Refoundation, announced the removal of the president and all state institutions. Lt Col Pascal Tigri was appointed president of the military committee, the soldiers said.
Additional sources: Guardian, Al Jazeera
