Military Committee for Refoundation says it has removed the president and state institutions.
Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri declared head of the junta as Benin faces its first coup in decades.
Follows regional instability with Guinea-Bissau’s Embalo ousted last week.
Soldiers Announce Apparent Military Coup In Benin
A military group on state TV claims to dissolve Benin’s government, naming Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri as leader amid a wave of West African coups.
Summary
A group of soldiers has appeared on Benin ’s state TV announcing the dissolution of the government in an apparent coup, the latest of many in West Africa.
On Sunday, the organisation, which identified itself as the Military Committee for Refoundation, declared that the president and all state institutions would be removed.
According to the troops, Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri has been named president of the military committee.
The West African country had several coups after gaining independence from France in 1960, particularly in the decades that followed. Since 1991, the country has been politically stable following the two-decade rule of Mathieu Kérékou, a Marxist-Leninist who renamed the country the People’s Republic of Benin.
Following the presidential election in April of next year, President Patrice Talon, who had been in office since 2016, is scheduled to resign.
Former Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, Talon's party choice, was the clear favourite to win. The electoral commission rejected opposition candidate Renaud Agbodjo because he lacked enough sponsors.
The nation's lawmakers increased the president's term of office from five to seven years last month, maintaining the two-term restriction.
West Africa has been rocked by a series of military takeovers, the most recent of which being this coup. Former President Umaro Embalo was overthrown by a military coup in Guinea-Bissau last week following a contentious election in which both he and the opposition candidate proclaimed themselves victorious.
With inputs from AP.
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