Nigeria dispatches jets, troops to quash Benin coup bid

LAGOS, Dec 8 - Nigerian fighter jets and ground troops moved on Monday to help restore order after a foiled coup attempt in Benin, aiming to head off a political crisis in a country that is battling jihadists and serves as a key trade corridor in West Africa.

In its first foreign military intervention in nearly a decade, Nigeria was motivated by fears of an unfriendly military regime taking charge in its backyard, potentially allowing violence to spill across its borders, analysts said. 

President Bola Tinubu sent fighter jets to assert control over Benin's airspace on Sunday as his close ally, Benin President Patrice Talon, tried to put down the coup attempt by what officials described as a small group of soldiers.

Tinubu's office said the operation included surveillance and rapid intervention missions coordinated with Benin. It was expected to be bolstered by troops from Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Ghana under the West African bloc ECOWAS.

NIGERIA FEARS 'HOSTILE AND UNPREDICTABLE NEIGHBOURS'

Nigeria last intervened abroad in 2017 when Gambian President Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after losing an election. The regional force deployed to Gambia did not engage in any fighting as Jammeh quickly capitulated.

Nigeria has responded far less aggressively to recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger. When soldiers toppled Guinea-Bissau's president last month, Tinubu's government condemned the coup and called for a return to constitutional order. 

But the prospect of a hostile military-led government taking over in Benin, which borders Nigerian territory targeted by jihadist groups, was too much to stomach, said Mucahid Durmaz, senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence group Verisk Maplecroft.

"Benin and Nigeria share a long, porous border and extensive economic interdependence," Durmaz said. "For Nigeria, a military coup and potential collapse of state order in Benin risk triggering cross-border insecurity, illicit trade and arms trafficking, potentially destabilising the southwest region, which the Nigerian economy is heavily reliant on."

Northern Benin has suffered repeated jihadist attacks, including major assaults in January and April that killed dozens of soldiers. This is despite the government sending thousands of troops since 2022 under its Operation Mirador to stabilise that territory, which borders Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Togo.

The coup plotters cited insecurity in the north as a justification for attempting the putsch, but for Nigeria a change of power in Benin raised fears of being "surrounded by hostile and unpredictable neighbours," Durmaz added.

ECOWAS, the regional bloc, "wants to show that they are doing something because they've been so completely inefficient in countering any of the coups that have taken place in the region during the past five years," said Nina Wilen, director of the Africa Programme at the Egmont Institute for International Relations in Belgium.

Benin's proximity also made it easier for Nigeria to intervene quickly, said Vincent Foucher, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France.

Benin is preparing for a presidential election in April that is expected to mark the end of Talon's tenure.

His finance minister, Romuald Wadagni, is the candidate for the ruling coalition and is seen as the heavy favourite. 

DETAILS STILL COMING INTO FOCUS

Details of Nigeria's military operations and Sunday's failed coup were still emerging on Monday.

Tinubu's office said they were involved in dislodging coup plotters from the state television channel, where soldiers claimed on Sunday morning to have toppled Talon, and from a military camp in Benin's largest city and commercial hub Cotonou where witnesses heard explosions and gunfire on Sunday evening.

That city was relatively calm on Monday. Government and military spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

In an address on state television late Sunday, Talon said his thoughts were with victims of the coup attempt as well as a number of people held by the fleeing mutineers, without providing details.

Talon said armed forces had cleared out all coup plotters and vowed to punish them.

The whereabouts of Colonel Tigri Pascal, identified as the coup leader, remain unknown. REUTERS