Benin Republic Coup leader hiding in Togo, says govt official
A senior government official in Benin has alleged that the leader of Sunday’s failed coup is taking refuge in neighbouring Togo.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that the government would request Lt Col Pascal Tigri’s extradition. Togolese government has not yet commented.
The failed coup came after a series of military takeovers in West Africa, raising concern that democracy is increasingly under threat in the region.
It was thwarted after regional power Nigeria sent fighter jets to dislodge the mutineers from a military base and the offices of state TV following a request from President Patrice Talon’s government.
A group of soldiers appeared on state TV early on Sunday to announce they had seized power, and gunfire was heard near the Presidential residence.
The Beninese government official said the authorities knew that Lt Col Pascal Tigri was in Togo’s capital, Lomé, in the same area where President Faure Gnassingbé lives.
“We don’t know how to explain this but we will make an official extradition request and see how the Togolese authorities will react,” the official added.
There is no independent confirmation of the claim.
Togo is part of the West African regional bloc, Ecowas, which condemned the coup attempt.
In October, Benin’s electoral commission barred the main opposition candidate from contesting the election.
The attempted coup came just over a week after Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló was overthrown, though some regional figures have questioned whether this was stage managed.
In recent years, West Africa has also seen coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger, prompting concerns about the region’s stability.
Benin, a former French colony, has been regarded as one of Africa’s more stable democracies.
The nation is one of the continent’s largest cotton producers, but ranks among the world’s poorest countries.
Nigeria described the coup attempt as a “direct assault on democracy”.
The rebellious soldiers justified their actions by criticizing Talon’s management of the country, complaining first about his handling of the “continuing deterioration of the security situation in Northern Benin”.
Benin’s army has suffered losses near its Northern border with insurgency-hit Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years, as jihadist militants linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda spread southwards.
The soldiers’ statement cited “the ignorance and neglect of the situation of our brothers in arms who have fallen at the front and, above all, that of their families, abandoned to their sad faith by Patrice Talon’s policies”.
The rebels also hit out at cuts in health care, including the cancellation of state-funded kidney dialysis, and taxes rises, as well as curbs on political activities
