PARIS: France provided logistical support and surveillance assistance to help the west African state of Benin thwart a coup attempt that was foiled at the weekend, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders, while France — at the request of the Beninese authorities — provided assistance “in terms of surveillance, observation and logistical support” to the Benin armed forces, the aide, asking not to be named, told reporters.
Further details on the nature of the assistance were not immediately available.
A group of soldiers on Sunday took over the national television station and announced that President Patrice Talon had been deposed.
But loyalist army forces ultimately defeated the attempted putsch with the help of neighboring Nigeria, which carried out military strikes on Cotonou and deployed troops.
West Africa has endured a sequence of coups in the last years that have severely eroded French influence and presence in what were French colonies up until independence.
Mali saw coups in 2020 and 2021, followed by Burkina Faso in 2022 and then Niger in 2023. French forces that had been deployed in these countries for an anti-jihadist operation consequently pulled out.
A successful putsch in Benin, also a former French colony, would have been seen as a new blow to the standing of Paris and Macron in the region.
On Sunday, Macron spoke with Talon as well as the leaders of top regional power Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, which holds the presidency of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the aide said.
The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president (Macron), who unequivocally condemned this attempt at destabilization, which fortunately failed,” said the aide.
ECOWAS has said troops from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being deployed to Benin to help the government “preserve constitutional order.”
The bloc had threatened intervention during Niger’s 2023 coup that deposed president Mohamed Bazoum — an ally of Macron — but ultimately did not act.
France also did not carry out any intervention against the Niger coup.
“France has offered its full political support to ECOWAS, which made a very significant effort this weekend,” said the aide.