WITH growing fears that the militant Islamist insurgency that has engulfed large parts of West Africa is spreading, security has been dominating the campaign trail in Benin – a once-largely peaceful nation.
Sunday’s presidential election comes about four months after outgoing President Patrice Talon survived a coup attempt, when Nigeria – the regional superpower – sent warplanes to bombard mutinous soldiers who had attempted to overthrow him.
Nigeria’s intervention prevented Benin from going down the path of several other regional states – including Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali – where the military seized power in recent years as disillusionment grew over the failure of civilian governments to beat back the militants allied with al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) group.
The threat posed to Benin by the insurgents was highlighted by the fact that an al-Qaeda affiliate, known by the initials JNIM, killed 15 soldiers last month in an attack on a military base in Kofouno, near the border with Niger.
It signalled the continuation of a trend witnessed last year, when 28 of Benin’s soldiers were killed in January in an attack in the W National Park, which stretches into Niger and Burkina Faso, and another 54 three months later in the same park – making it the highest death toll suffered by the military at the hands of the insurgents.
W National Park and two adjacent ones, Pendjari and Arly, are the largest protected wilderness areas in West Africa, covering 1.7 million hectares.
The forests are dense and the region’s porous borders make it easy for the militants to set up bases and to move across countries without being detected by the security forces.
A map of Benin showing the neighbouring countries and the location of the national parks on the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger.
Violence monitoring group Acled says a sharp increase in attacks on the borderlands between Niger, Benin and Nigeria has also been recorded, turning remote transit corridors into active conflict zones.
As attacks intensified, at least 1,000 people were killed in these border areas in 2025, more than double the number from 2024, according to Acled.
The attacks have alarmed locals, with a school teacher telling the BBC: “We only want to work, to educate the youth, but it’s becoming so difficult.
“We can’t imagine our country becoming like Nigeria with Boko Haram’s threats, which has killed so many people.”
Expressing her fears, a mother-of-one said: “We are afraid to go to the fields.
“I don’t know what to do, where to go. Anytime, those guys could come here and rape us, steal our stuff or kill us. It’s not easy.
“Benin doesn’t deserve this. The youth don’t deserve this.”
In an attempt to allay the fears of voters, the candidate of the ruling coalition, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, 49, launched his campaign in March in Kandi, a strategic trading hub near the border with Niger and Nigeria, and then travelled to other parts of the north, including Banikoara and Ségbana, two localities deeply affected by attacks.