Coup Averted? The Real Crisis in Benin Happened Years Ago

The news broke in the early hours of Sunday, December 7th, 2025.

Gunfire echoed through Cotonou, Benin’s largest city. Sleepy residents awoke to a frenzy of confused text messages and alarming updates spreading through WhatsApp groups. Then, the nation’s state television flickered to life, displaying an image not seen in Benin for 53 years: soldiers in combat fatigues, armed, sitting behind a desk.

They claimed they had just overthrown the government.

The officer in charge cited a “deteriorating security situation in the north” and the government’s “disregard and neglect of our fallen brothers in arms.”

Within hours, the crisis was over. Loyalist forces stormed back, the mutiny collapsed. President Patrice Talon appeared on television, vowing to punish the “adventurers responsible for this coup attempt.” Behind the scenes, Niger scrambled fighter jets to help Benin’s army retake the airwaves. By nightfall, it was all over. West African leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief: another coup averted, democracy preserved.

But here is what they are not telling you. The real coup in Benin happened years ago.

December 7th was not the beginning of this crisis. If anything, it was merely a symptom of a crisis that has been building since 2016.

This is the story of how one of Africa’s most celebrated democracies became a cautionary tale, and why the world needs to pay attention beyond the headlines of December 7th.

The Miracle That Was Benin

To understand how shocking the soldiers’ announcement was—”Mr. Patrice Talon is removed from office as president of the republic”—you need to understand what Benin used to be.

Between 1960 and 1972, the country (then called Dahomey) was a mess: six successful military coups in just 12 years. In 1972, Major Mathieu Kérékou seized power, ushering in a 17-year Marxist-Leninist dictatorship.

But in 1990, something extraordinary happened. Kérékou’s regime ran out of money. Under mounting pressure, he allowed an unprecedented National Conference, where 488 delegates from every corner of society gathered to decide the country’s future. The conference declared itself sovereign, drafted a new democratic constitution, and organized multi-party elections.

In March 1991, Kérékou lost. In a moment almost unthinkable in Africa, he accepted defeat and stepped down peacefully.

Benin became the first African country to transition from dictatorship to democracy through the ballot box. It was a miracle that held for the next 25 years. Power alternated peacefully, and the country went 53 years without a successful coup. Benin was the exception, the model, the success story.

Then came Patrice Talon in 2016.

The Rise of the “King of Cotton”

Patrice Talon, a self-made cotton magnate and a political outsider worth $400 million, ran on a seductive pitch: he was a businessman who would run the country like a company, fight corruption, and, most remarkably, limit his own power. He pledged to serve only one six-year term, arguing it would prevent the complacency that came with campaigning for reelection. “5 years mean 5 years,” his supporters repeated.

He won on April 6, 2016. Democracy seemed strong. But almost immediately, the shift began.

The Capture of the Referee

Judicial Takeover: Within months, Talon appointed his personal lawyer and close friend, Joseph Djogbénou, as Minister of Justice. Two years later, Djogbénou was elevated to president of the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest judicial authority. This was the capture of the referee, transforming the court into an instrument of presidential power.

The Rules of the Game Change

In October 2018, the National Assembly, increasingly stacked with Talon’s allies, passed a new electoral code. On paper, it was to “streamline” the chaotic party system. In reality, it was designed to eliminate competition.

The law introduced impossible barriers:

The filing fee jumped to nearly $427,000.
Parties needed to capture at least 10% of the national vote to win a single seat in parliament.

The trap snapped shut.

When the deadline arrived for the April 2019 parliamentary elections, not a single opposition party had obtained the required certificate of conformity. The only two parties on the ballot were aligned with President Talon.

The country was essentially given a choice: vote for Talon’s party A, or Talon’s party B.

Protests were met with police brutality. An 83-year-old former first lady was tear-gassed. On election day, turnout was officially 27.1%—the lowest since 1991. The result: an 88-seat parliament with 100% loyalty to President Talon. Not a single opposition voice.

Within months, this rubber-stamped legislature passed constitutional amendments without a referendum. Benin’s democracy didn’t collapse; it was methodically dismantled, law by law, all perfectly legal on paper. That same year, Freedom House downgraded Benin from Free to Partly Free.

The Extinguishing of Competition

The 2019 purge was only the beginning. To consolidate power, Talon needed to control who could win the presidency.

A new rule required any presidential candidate to be sponsored by at least 10% of national deputies and mayors. Since the opposition had been systematically locked out of local and national government, they couldn’t secure the required endorsements.

The consequences were devastating:

Rékia Madougou, a charismatic opposition leader, was arrested in March 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for “terrorism” by a special court whose judges were handpicked by the president.
Professor Joël Aïvo, a constitutional scholar who ran for president, was arrested days after the vote and received 10 years for alleged money laundering.
Over 100 opposition politicians and activists were detained in the run-up to the election.

On April 11th, 2021, the presidential election proceeded with only two relatively unknown candidates allowed to stand against Talon. Despite historic low participation, officially reported at 50% but estimated much lower, President Talon was declared the winner with 86% of the vote.

The essential ingredient of democracy—competition—had been extinguished.

The Alarm Bell on December 7th

For the next two years, Benin lived under a tightening grip. Press freedom collapsed, dropping 43 places in global rankings. Journalists were arrested, television stations forced off the air, and labor unions were severely restricted. The political atmosphere shifted from vibrant debate to quiet resignation and fear.

Yet, Talon’s government pointed to economic success: GDP growth hit 5.5% in 2023. They claimed to be delivering stability and prosperity, justifying the cost to freedom.

But there was another cost: the war in the north.

Since 2019, jihadist groups have been pushing south from the Sahel, and Benin’s northern borders are now a conflict zone. Attacks on civilians jumped 75% between 2022 and 2023. While soldiers died in remote outposts, the political elite in Cotonou seemed focused on constitutional games.

This is what brought us to December 7th, 2025. The mutinous soldiers cited the “disregard and neglect of our fallen brothers in arms” as justification for their coup attempt. They were pointing to the system cracking under the weight of its own contradictions.

The Final Move: Power for Life?

The coup attempt came just weeks after President Talon orchestrated a final, staggering constitutional maneuver.

October 2025: Talon rejected calls for a third term, earning global praise.
October 2025: The top opposition party’s candidate was disqualified from the upcoming 2026 presidential election on a technicality in the rigged sponsorship system.
November 14th, 2025: The National Assembly, using its two-thirds supermajority, voted to pass sweeping constitutional changes:
- The presidential term was extended from five to seven years.
- A new Senate was created, which would include all former heads of state as lifetime members.

This was the trap: Talon could claim he was respecting term limits while simultaneously rigging who could replace him and guaranteeing himself influence over Benin’s governance for decades to come—authoritarianism with a democratic mask.

The Real Story

The attempted coup on December 7th was a failure, swiftly crushed by loyalists, regional intervention, and the system Talon had carefully constructed.

But here is the truth that the international community is missing:

The attempted coup wasn’t the crisis. It was the alarm bell.

You cannot imprison opposition leaders, silence journalists, bar parties from the ballot, and ram through constitutional overhauls without public consent and expect the facade to hold forever.

December 7th was crushed, not because the people are in support of the government, but because the real coup happened years earlier. It was a silent, methodical takeover of every democratic institution, piece by piece, all while claiming to adhere to the letter of the law.

Benin is now an electoral autocracy. The world must look beyond the single day of failed mutiny and confront the fact that one of Africa’s greatest democratic success stories has been captured by an elite focused more on power consolidation than the mounting insecurity that threatens to destabilize the entire nation.

The crisis in Benin is not over—it has simply gone underground.