Propped up by foreign troops who have remained after the military intervention to restore him to power following a coup attempt on December 7, Benin’s France-backed president, Patrice Talon, has unleashed a crackdown on his opponents. His police arrested several activists and politicians from across the spectrum over the weekend.
The first arrest of a prominent politician in the aftermath of the foiled coup was on Friday, when the police picked up Candide Azzanai, president of Restore Hope, outside his party HQ during a rally.
A former ally in custody
Formerly a staunch ally who had campaigned for Talon’s presidential candidacy in 2016, Azzanai went on to serve as his deputy minister of defense for a year.
However, he resigned in March 2017, later citing as the reason his “refusal to serve as a guarantor for the programmed assassination of democracy, so dearly won, for the plundering of promising sectors, for the gagging of freedoms, for the ruin of the rule of law, and for the disintegration of national cohesion.” He has since been a vocal critic of Talon.
While condemning the coup attempt on December 7 in a statement last week, Azzanai had also denounced Talon’s attempts to “exploit criminal events with the aim of seizing [more] power through the manipulation and intimidation of dissenting voices and critical political opinions.” Currently in police custody, he is accused of “conspiracy against state authority and incitement to rebellion.”
Suppression of the largest opposition party
Two days after his arrest, at around 2 am on Sunday, December 14, the police came for Chabi Yayi, the foreign affairs secretary of The Democrats, Benin’s largest opposition party.
Earlier in October, its candidate, Renaud Agbodjo, the main contender for the presidency in the upcoming 2026 election, was barred from contesting. The party is headed by Chabi Yayi’s father, Boni Yayi, president of Benin from 2006 to 2016.
Pointing out that “Boni Yayi … has been in power for 10 years, and President Talon … is finishing his 10 years,” opposition leader Sabi Korogoné had formed the “Benin Standing Tall” coalition in early 2024 as “a third voice that stands apart from those who lead us today as well as those who led us yesterday.”
International arrest warrants
On December 12, Benin’s Court for the Repression of Economic Crimes and Terrorism (CRIET) issued an international arrest warrant against Korogoné. The court also issued another international arrest warrant against Kemi Seba, President of Urgences Panafricanistes (Pan-Africanist Emergencies).
The organization has been on the frontlines of the movement against the continuing French stranglehold over its former colonies in West Africa. “You will never be able to stop us … We will see this fight through to the end,” Seba replied in a video statement.
Coup attempt
When the coup was underway on December 7, Seba had welcomed it as Benin’s “day of liberation”, calling the soldiers participating in it “patriotic”.
Taking the national television that morning, the group of soldiers announcing the coup had complained of “mismanagement of the agricultural sector”, the capture of “all vital sectors of the economy by a small minority” of elites, and taxes burdening “already poor populations” under Talon.
They had also decried the “deterioration of the security situation in northern Benin”, in the throes of terror attacks ever since French troops were redeployed in the country after expulsion from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which went on to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
However, Talon was restored to power after a military intervention, including airstrikes and a ground incursion by Nigeria, alongside whose troops were also deployed soldiers from Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana.
They were a part of the Standby Force of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc under the neocolonial yoke of France, which “provided support in terms of surveillance, observation, and logistics,” a French presidential adviser told Reuters.
The Communist Party of Benin (PCB) maintains that the French troops, redeployed to secret bases in Benin after their expulsion from the AES states, also took an active part in suppressing the rebellion in the Beninese military.
While reiterating its opposition to “putschism” and reiterating mass action as the way to address the issues highlighted by the soldiers involved in the coup, the PCB insisted that the coup itself was the consequence of the closing of “every avenue for democratic expression” under Talon.
The number of casualties caused by the military intervention to protect Talon from these consequences has not been revealed, “but we know that there are many deaths of civilians,” said the party’s first secretary, Philippe Noudjenoume.
After this foreign military intervention restored him to power, Talon appeared on television, issuing a statement dismissing the participants in the coup as “a small group” of soldiers.
“One does not call Emmanuel Macron and request the support of French troops” and “bring in the Nigerian army, the ECOWAS standby force, against a small group of adventurers,” the PCB retorted. “Almost all military garrisons” of the Beninese military had approved the coup, necessitating the foreign intervention, Noudjenoume toldPeoples Dispatch.
With Talon unable to rely on the Beninese military, the foreign troops stayed, taking control of strategic locations and several government buildings, he added. On December 11, Benin’s Foreign Minister Olushegun Bakari said that “around 200″ of the foreign soldiers remained in the country “as part of the sweep and clean-up operation”, though, pending independent estimates, it’s possible this number is greater. 50 of them are reportedly from the Ivory Coast.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI), while cautioning against the “temptation” to take “shortcuts” like “coups” and echoing the PCB’s insistence on popular mobilization, added, however: “The repression of opposition movements, the exclusion of opponents from electoral competitions, the seizure of all national resources for the benefit of a minority, the submission to imperialist power” had “sown” the seeds for “the current revolts in Benin.”
“Calling on the armies of ECOWAS, under the command of French forces, to intervene in Benin to save his power, Talon violated the Republican oath that binds him to the people of Benin,” its statement added.
So far, Talon’s regime has not specified any deadline for the withdrawal of the foreign troops. Bakari only said that their withdrawal would be decided “in close collaboration with Benin’s defense and security forces.”
“French troops out of Benin! Nigerian Troops out of Benin! Ivorian troops out of Benin!”
Demonstrations were organized in different locations across the country to commemorate the end of one-party rule and the establishment of multiparty democracy on December 11, 1989. Activists rallied under the slogan: “French troops out of Benin! Nigerian Troops out of Benin! Ivorian troops out of Benin!”
In retaliation, on the early morning of December 13, the police arrested three PCB members – Gbadessi Xavier, Adja Mathias, and Tchouba Pierre – for raising these slogans.
“Instead of calming the situation”, Talon’s regime, backed by the militaries of the “imperialist powers and their [regional] accomplices”, is further inflaming unrest with its “witch hunt”, “arrests,” and “arrest warrants,” said the Council of Patriotic Youth (CoJeP).
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Propped up by foreign troops, Benin’s regime targets opposition
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/16/propped-up-by-foreign-troops-benins-regime-targets-opposition/Propped up by foreign troops who have remained after the military intervention to restore him to power following a coup attempt on December 7, Benin’s France-backed president, Patrice Talon, has unleashed a crackdown on his opponents. His police arrested several activists and politicians from across the spectrum over the weekend.
The first arrest of a prominent politician in the aftermath of the foiled coup was on Friday, when the police picked up Candide Azzanai, president of Restore Hope, outside his party HQ during a rally.
A former ally in custody
Formerly a staunch ally who had campaigned for Talon’s presidential candidacy in 2016, Azzanai went on to serve as his deputy minister of defense for a year.
However, he resigned in March 2017, later citing as the reason his “refusal to serve as a guarantor for the programmed assassination of democracy, so dearly won, for the plundering of promising sectors, for the gagging of freedoms, for the ruin of the rule of law, and for the disintegration of national cohesion.” He has since been a vocal critic of Talon.
While condemning the coup attempt on December 7 in a statement last week, Azzanai had also denounced Talon’s attempts to “exploit criminal events with the aim of seizing [more] power through the manipulation and intimidation of dissenting voices and critical political opinions.” Currently in police custody, he is accused of “conspiracy against state authority and incitement to rebellion.”
Suppression of the largest opposition party
Two days after his arrest, at around 2 am on Sunday, December 14, the police came for Chabi Yayi, the foreign affairs secretary of The Democrats, Benin’s largest opposition party.
Earlier in October, its candidate, Renaud Agbodjo, the main contender for the presidency in the upcoming 2026 election, was barred from contesting. The party is headed by Chabi Yayi’s father, Boni Yayi, president of Benin from 2006 to 2016.
Pointing out that “Boni Yayi … has been in power for 10 years, and President Talon … is finishing his 10 years,” opposition leader Sabi Korogoné had formed the “Benin Standing Tall” coalition in early 2024 as “a third voice that stands apart from those who lead us today as well as those who led us yesterday.”
International arrest warrants
On December 12, Benin’s Court for the Repression of Economic Crimes and Terrorism (CRIET) issued an international arrest warrant against Korogoné. The court also issued another international arrest warrant against Kemi Seba, President of Urgences Panafricanistes (Pan-Africanist Emergencies).
Read More: France’s persecution of Pan-Africanist Kemi Seba
The organization has been on the frontlines of the movement against the continuing French stranglehold over its former colonies in West Africa. “You will never be able to stop us … We will see this fight through to the end,” Seba replied in a video statement.
Coup attempt
When the coup was underway on December 7, Seba had welcomed it as Benin’s “day of liberation”, calling the soldiers participating in it “patriotic”.
Taking the national television that morning, the group of soldiers announcing the coup had complained of “mismanagement of the agricultural sector”, the capture of “all vital sectors of the economy by a small minority” of elites, and taxes burdening “already poor populations” under Talon.
They had also decried the “deterioration of the security situation in northern Benin”, in the throes of terror attacks ever since French troops were redeployed in the country after expulsion from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which went on to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Read More: The people of Benin intensify anti-French protests in the wake of a terror attack
Foreign military intervention
However, Talon was restored to power after a military intervention, including airstrikes and a ground incursion by Nigeria, alongside whose troops were also deployed soldiers from Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana.
They were a part of the Standby Force of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc under the neocolonial yoke of France, which “provided support in terms of surveillance, observation, and logistics,” a French presidential adviser told Reuters.
The Communist Party of Benin (PCB) maintains that the French troops, redeployed to secret bases in Benin after their expulsion from the AES states, also took an active part in suppressing the rebellion in the Beninese military.
While reiterating its opposition to “putschism” and reiterating mass action as the way to address the issues highlighted by the soldiers involved in the coup, the PCB insisted that the coup itself was the consequence of the closing of “every avenue for democratic expression” under Talon.
The number of casualties caused by the military intervention to protect Talon from these consequences has not been revealed, “but we know that there are many deaths of civilians,” said the party’s first secretary, Philippe Noudjenoume.
After this foreign military intervention restored him to power, Talon appeared on television, issuing a statement dismissing the participants in the coup as “a small group” of soldiers.
“One does not call Emmanuel Macron and request the support of French troops” and “bring in the Nigerian army, the ECOWAS standby force, against a small group of adventurers,” the PCB retorted. “Almost all military garrisons” of the Beninese military had approved the coup, necessitating the foreign intervention, Noudjenoume told Peoples Dispatch.
Read More: Foreign troops restore France-backed Talon regime in Benin following coup attempt
With Talon unable to rely on the Beninese military, the foreign troops stayed, taking control of strategic locations and several government buildings, he added. On December 11, Benin’s Foreign Minister Olushegun Bakari said that “around 200″ of the foreign soldiers remained in the country “as part of the sweep and clean-up operation”, though, pending independent estimates, it’s possible this number is greater. 50 of them are reportedly from the Ivory Coast.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI), while cautioning against the “temptation” to take “shortcuts” like “coups” and echoing the PCB’s insistence on popular mobilization, added, however: “The repression of opposition movements, the exclusion of opponents from electoral competitions, the seizure of all national resources for the benefit of a minority, the submission to imperialist power” had “sown” the seeds for “the current revolts in Benin.”
“Calling on the armies of ECOWAS, under the command of French forces, to intervene in Benin to save his power, Talon violated the Republican oath that binds him to the people of Benin,” its statement added.
So far, Talon’s regime has not specified any deadline for the withdrawal of the foreign troops. Bakari only said that their withdrawal would be decided “in close collaboration with Benin’s defense and security forces.”
“French troops out of Benin! Nigerian Troops out of Benin! Ivorian troops out of Benin!”
Demonstrations were organized in different locations across the country to commemorate the end of one-party rule and the establishment of multiparty democracy on December 11, 1989. Activists rallied under the slogan: “French troops out of Benin! Nigerian Troops out of Benin! Ivorian troops out of Benin!”
In retaliation, on the early morning of December 13, the police arrested three PCB members – Gbadessi Xavier, Adja Mathias, and Tchouba Pierre – for raising these slogans.
“Instead of calming the situation”, Talon’s regime, backed by the militaries of the “imperialist powers and their [regional] accomplices”, is further inflaming unrest with its “witch hunt”, “arrests,” and “arrest warrants,” said the Council of Patriotic Youth (CoJeP).
The post Propped up by foreign troops, Benin’s regime targets opposition appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
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