200 W.African troops aiding Benin in post-coup 'clean-up': foreign minister

A vendor arranges newspapers on a stall in Cotonou, on December 8, 2025. Benin's president said the "situation is completely under control" after the government thwarted an attempted coup. [AFP]

Some 200 Nigerian and Ivorian troops are in Benin as part of a security mission supporting the government after a weekend coup attempt, the country's foreign minister said Thursday.

The small west African nation was rocked by a failed putsch Sunday, which saw Nigeria, France and Ivory Coast mobilise in support of the civilian government.

"There are currently around 200 soldiers present, who came to lend a hand at the end of the day to the Beninese defense and security forces as part of the sweep and clean-up operation," Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told reporters at a press conference in the Nigerian capital.

According to an Ivorian security source, fifty troops were sent by Abidjan as part of the deployment, which regional bloc ECOWAS has said will also include soldiers from Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Nigeria said its soldiers had reached Benin on Sunday.

The head of Benin's republican guard told AFP that French special forces also provided support.

Bakari said that by the time the Beninese forces called for help, the coup "was already a failure".

"They started the coup around 3 a.m. They attacked the president's house around 3 a.m. And our national defence force, they blocked them," Bakari told reporters on the sidelines of an ongoing ECOWAS summit in Abuja.

"When we started discussions for the intervention of Nigeria and the others, under ECOWAS protocol, our military already pushed them back," he said. "It was already a failure, the coup."

The Nigerian air force was called in to dislodge alleged putschists holed up in a military camp in a heavily populated area of Cotonou, with Beninese commanders worried that a gunfight could leave civilian casualties.

"President Talon requested aerial support from Nigeria to ensure we can have a surgical impact, destroy the armoured vehicles they have in this military barracks and ensure they cannot get out to take over the airport, et cetera," Bakari said.

He added how long the ECOWAS troops will stay will be decided "in the coming days".

"Their presence is in tight collaboration with Beninese defence and security forces," he said.