COTONOU: Several people died in Benin during a thwarted coup attempt on the weekend, the west African country’s government announced Monday after an emergency cabinet meeting.
Early Sunday, “violent clashes” erupted between the coup plotters and the Republican Guard at the Cotonou residence of President Patrice Talon, resulting in “casualties on both sides,” according to the government.
Among the dead was the wife of the president’s military chief-of-staff, General Bertin Bada, who was himself fatally wounded in a separate, earlier assault by the putschists.
Some coup plotters remained at large late Monday with as many as a dozen arrested.
“The small group of soldiers who organized the mutiny planned to remove the president of the republic from office, to subjugate the Republic’s institutions and to challenge the established order,” said the government’s secretary general, Edouard Ouin-Ouro, according to cabinet meeting minutes.
“They initially attempted to neutralize or kidnap certain generals and senior army officers,” he added.
The plotters, who staged their mutiny at the Togbin base in the capital according to the government, abducted Sunday night the chief of staff of the National Guard, Faizou Gomina, and also General Abou Issa, army chief of staff.
Both men were eventually released in Tchaourou, a central city located more than 350 km (215 miles) from Cotonou.
The army “surrounded the Togbin base” on Sunday, where “targeted, surgical airstrikes were then carried out, without exposing surrounding neighborhoods” to danger, the government said.
Benin says it received military assistance for the strikes from the Nigerian army and from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which announced the deployment of soldiers from four countries in the region.
Those troops are “currently housed” at the Togbin base, which “has been retaken,” according to Ouin-Ouro.
“This operation was carried out successfully, without loss of life,” and “the last attackers ... fled,” the government stated.
‘Several’ deaths in thwarted Benin coup: government
https://arab.news/c8hda
‘Several’ deaths in thwarted Benin coup: government
- Among the dead was the wife of the president’s military chief-of-staff, who was himself fatally wounded
- Some coup plotters remained at large late Monday with as many as a dozen arrested
German spy chief warns of Russia threat to 2026 regional polls
- Sinan Selen said hat Germany was especially in Moscow’s sights because it is a central logistics hub of the NATO alliance on the continent
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic spy chief warned Monday that Russia could step up sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns next year when the EU’s top economy, a strong backer of Ukraine, holds several regional elections.
Sinan Selen, head of the BfV intelligence service, said in a Berlin speech that Germany was especially in Moscow’s sights because it is a central logistics hub of the NATO alliance on the continent.
Speaking later to AFP, Selen said about Russian disinformation campaigns that “we’ve repeatedly seen that elections play a very significant role here, and as you know we have several state elections in Germany next year.”
Russia is blamed by Western security services for a spate of drone flights, acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and online disinformation campaigns in Europe, which have escalated since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We are being attacked here and now in Europe,” Selen said in a speech marking 75 years since the founding of the BfV, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“In its role as a logistics hub for collective defense and support of Ukraine, Germany is more heavily targeted by Russian intelligence services than other countries,” he said.
“Above all Russia, as a hybrid actor, is undoubtedly aggressive, offensive and escalating. Its intelligence services employ a wide range of attack vectors from its toolbox.
“A clear sign of a highly dangerous escalation is the preparation and execution of sabotage attacks in Germany and other European countries, for which the Kremlin is considered the primary instigator. There is no sign of any relief in sight.”
Germany next year holds five regional elections, including in the ex-communist east, where the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hopes to make further strong gains.
Selen, speaking about hybrid threats, said that “every sector of society can be affected, and this will be especially true in the coming year.”
The course of the Ukraine war would also strongly influence the actions of Russia, which Selen said “can scale the intensity of its sabotage operations at will.”
Selen added that “this war of aggression is more than a struggle for Ukrainian territory, it is a litmus test in the ongoing systemic conflict between authoritarianism and democracy in a multipolar and complex world.”
