Benin’s political situation is characterised by one essential and principal element: its military position in NATO’s war of aggression against the AES countries.
- Recap of events.
1°- On 1st and 2nd May 2019, the French Presidency (l’Elysée) announced with great media fanfare (RFI-TV5 France 24) the kidnapping in the Pendjari Park in northern Benin of two French tourists and their Beninese guide, Gbédji Fiacre, who was brutally murdered and found a few days later. On 10 May, another press release from the French Presidency announced the release of the two kidnapped French tourists and two other hostages, an American and a South Korean, while deploring the death of two French soldiers involved in the rescue operation.
2°- On 8th and 10th February 2022, another large-scale terrorist attack took place, this time in Parc W (on the Niger-Burkina Faso border). At least nine people were killed (2 civilians from the African Parks Network – APN, 5 forest rangers, 1 Benin Armed Forces officer) and 12 injured.
3: On 02/12/2024, 3 soldiers killed and 4 wounded in a terrorist attack in Malanville; on 03/12/2024, new terrorist attack in Kandi, deaths recorded among the soldiers; on 18/9/2024 terrorist attack: 2 policemen killed; on 20/9/2024, terrorist attack: around ten soldiers killed. – 8th January 2025, deadly attack: 35 soldiers killed; 17th April, major deadly attack: more than 50 killed, etc.
And since then, there is not a day that goes by without a terrorist attack in Benin, with many deaths, but this never happens. American-piloted helicopters transport the corpses, many of which are buried who knows where.
The culmination of all this was the signing by President Talon on 17 February 2023 at the Elysée Palace, in the presence of President Bazoum of Niger, of a treaty with French President Macron on the establishment of French military bases in Benin.
Note that Benin, under the late President Ahomadégbé, expelled French troops from Dahomey (Benin) in 1964.
I- Benin’s position in the new French military strategy of war against the AES states.
From the first unrest in Mali, following Sanogo’s coup d’état in 2012, France began looking for solutions to encircle the Sahel countries by the Gulf of Guinea states; Benin is high on the list. This explains the aggressive adventure described as the ‘kidnapping’ of French tourists in Benin on 1st May 2019. The aim is to frighten Benin’s rulers into accepting a French military base.
This plan has accelerated with the arrival in power of the patriotic officers in Mali on 20th August 2020 (with Goïta) and in Burkina Faso in September 2022 (with Traoré) and the expulsion of French forces from these two countries. These French military troops have to be deployed elsewhere. This is what led the French President to get Talon to sign the agreement to set up military bases in Benin in February 2023.
The inevitable consequence has been an acceleration in the number of increasingly frequent and deadly terrorist attacks that Benin has seen since the signing of this famous agreement and the landing of French troops in our country. And yet the Beninese military camps that have been attacked are supervised by French military instructors. This clearly shows that French ‘instructors’ are behind these terrorist attacks.
- What is the situation in Benin today?
Benin, along with Côte d’Ivoire, is the base for French and NATO aggression in the sub-region: Côte d’Ivoire is used against Mali and Burkina Faso, while Benin is used as a base for aggression against Niger and Burkina Faso.
On 6th January 2025, the French President himself confirmed to ambassadors « the existence of strategic military bases in Africa, particularly in Benin and Nigeria».
Benin is thus becoming a French testing ground for strategic dispositions.
« Our role is changing in Africa […] because the world is changing in Africa, because public opinion is changing, because governments are changing» and [also] «because we decided in a sovereign manner in February 2023, after several years of gradual change, to rebuild a partnership based on respected partners», « with whom we must help with training, equipment, intelligence, for specific operations » (statement by President Macron in Djibouti in December 2024).
French forces are deployed at various locations in Benin, mainly at strategic points overlooking neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso. These actions are coordinated with the logistics of the American armed forces, which are lending a hand to the French forces on the ground. This explains the AFRICOM meetings held in Cotonou.
Everyone in Benin knows all this. The leaders of the sub-region, who are the targets of these schemes, are not fooled by the situation. Their various statements attest to this.
The people of Benin do not accept this situation. Since January 2025, young people and women have been taking part in various demonstrations to demand the departure of the French forces, despite the arrests they have been subjected to. Across the social spectrum, the popular masses refuse to allow Beninese territory to be turned into a base for aggression against neighbouring peoples.
The Beninese people are certain to drive the French occupying forces from the sacred land of Benin.
Cotonou on 07th July 2025.
Azango.
