Benin President Patrice Talon has vowed to punish the coup plotters responsible for the thwarted coup attempt over the weekend.
Talon’s announced this in a statement on Sunday evening, about 12 hours after gunfire first rang out in several neighbourhoods of Cotonou, the country’s biggest city and commercial hub, and soldiers went on state television to say they had removed Talon from power.
Forces loyal to Talon “stood firm, recaptured our positions, and cleared the last pockets of resistance held by the mutineers,” Talon said in his own televised statement.
“This commitment and mobilisation enabled us to defeat these adventurers and to prevent the worst for our country… This treachery will not go unpunished.”
Talon said his thoughts were with victims of the coup attempt as well as with several people held by the fleeing mutineers, without giving details. It was an unexpected development in Benin, where the last successful coup took place in 1972.
A government spokesperson, Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji, said that 14 people had been arrested in connection with the coup attempt as of Sunday afternoon, without providing details.
