Confusion or Coup? Who is in charge in Benin Republic?

By emmanuel MALAGU

A group of soldiers in Benin Republic has announced on state broadcaster Benin TV on Sunday that President Patrice Talon had been “removed from office,”.

This is coming months ahead of the presidential election scheduled for April 2026.

Identifying themselves as the “Military Committee for the Refoundation (CMR),” the soldiers said they convened on Sunday and decided that “Mr. Patrice Talon is dismissed from his functions as president of the republic.”

Gunshots were reported at Camp Guezo, near the president’s residence in the largest city of Cotonou, and local media said soldiers had taken control of the state broadcaster.

However, the Presidency said the president is safe and that government forces have regained control of the situation.

The soldiers had announced that Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri has been appointed president of the military committee.

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 Marxist-Leninist 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 Talon since gunshots were heard around the presidential residence.

The signal to state television and public radio was cut off after the military announcement.

Credit NAN: Texts excluding Headline