Democracy under siege: Benin beats back coup as West Africa’s political storm intensifies
THE crack of gunfire shattered Cotonou's Sunday morning calm as Benin - long celebrated as West Africa's beacon of democratic stability - found itself staring down the barrel of its own military. Armed soldiers had seized the state broadcaster, their faces stern beneath military berets as they announced the unthinkable: the dissolution of parliament, the suspension of the constitution, the death of the old order. "The army solemnly commits to give the Beninese people the hope of a truly new era, where fraternity, justice and work prevail," Colonel Tigri Pascal declared through the television cameras, eight uniformed figures flanking him…
