Africa’s expanding coup belt saw a new front line in Benin on December 7, with soldiers attempting a coup against President Talon. The coup was swiftly thwarted, revealing a deeper political crisis stemming from Talon’s systematic dismantling of democracy since 2016. Talon’s actions included legal engineering, electoral exclusion, and crackdowns on dissent, culminating in his controversial re-election in 2021. The country’s democratic institutions have been hollowed out, leading to the imprisonment of opposition figures and the erosion of political freedoms.
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