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Nigeria’s Air Force has hit targets in Benin Republic, according to information gotten by The Eastern Updates.
It is believed the strikes were carried out in apparent coordination with Beninese authorities working to contain a coup attempt.
It is not clear what the targets of the strikes were.
However, the situation in Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin Republic, remains uncertain, as huge explosions were heard in the late afternoon.
Prior to the explosions, flight-tracking data showed that three aircraft entered Benin’s airspace from neighbouring Nigeria.
Two have since returned to the Nigerian city of Lagos, and a third appears to be heading towards an airbase in Kanji in western Nigeria. At one stage, two of the aircraft were flying side by side, which analysts suggest indicates they were military planes.
At the time, a French Air Force plane was maintaining a circular pattern over Cotonou. French diplomats have denied earlier reports that Talon had taken refuge at France’s embassy in Cotonou.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly condemned Sunday’s attempted coup in the Benin Republic, warning that the growing pattern of military interventions across West Africa poses a grave threat to democracy in the region.
The attempted takeover was announced on Benin’s national television by a group calling itself the Military Committee for Refoundation, claiming it had seized power, removed President Patrice Talon and dissolved state institutions.
The move comes less than two years before the country’s presidential election scheduled for April 2026.
Reacting in a statement on his X account, Atiku denounced the development as “utterly unacceptable,” stressing that the era of military rule in Africa “is long over.”
“I condemn, without reservation and in the strongest possible terms, the coup d’état in the Benin Republic,” the former vice president said.
