Overview
- Benin’s Dec. 7 takeover bid collapsed within hours as the presidential guard held firm and ECOWAS support, including Nigerian strikes and French special forces assistance, helped restore control.
- ECOWAS leaders avoided blaming the Sahel’s Alliance of Sahel States at their summit, while Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu used the operation to reassert regional leadership against military putsches.
- Sahel juntas would likely have welcomed a coastal ally, analysts say, yet there is no evidence they aided the plot; alleged ringleader Pascal Tigri is reportedly on the run and Benin has issued an arrest warrant for influencer Kemi Seba.
- The attempted overthrow failed to draw crowds, and several hundred people rallied to condemn it, contrasting with pro-junta mobilization seen after recent coups in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
- The foiled plot follows successful power grabs in Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau this fall, with experts citing economic pressures, security crises and election tensions as drivers as debate continues over whether copycat dynamics are at work.