On September 1, Captain Roger Gabriel, an officer with the 1st Paratrooper Battalion and company commander based at Camp Bagaji, gave a televised account of the events that unfolded during the night of August 28 to 29 around Base 101 in Niamey. Broadcast on national channel Sahel RTN and widely shared on social media afterward, his statement implicated several foreign actors in the failed coup attempt that shook Niger: Chad, Ivory Coast, France, ECOWAS, and Benin.
Named in the accusation, Cotonou wasted no time responding. The Beninese government rejected any involvement in an attempt to destabilise its neighbour, a firm response that fits into an already tense climate between the two countries.
The strained relations between Niger and Benin did not begin with this latest episode. They actually trace back to another affair, one much closer to home for Benin. In December 2025, Cotonou itself had been the target of a coup attempt against President Patrice Talon, orchestrated by a group of soldiers calling themselves the « Military Committee for Refoundation, » led by Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Tigri. Loyalist forces, backed by Nigerian air strikes and ground troops deployed at Cotonou’s request, along with ECOWAS reinforcements sent from Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, quickly regained control of the situation. Lieutenant Colonel Tigri remains on the run to this day.
It was in the aftermath of that episode that tensions between Niamey and Cotonou truly flared. In January 2026, Benin expelled two Nigerien officials from its embassy in Cotonou, an intelligence agent and a police officer, suspected of having been involved under diplomatic cover in the coup attempt against Talon. Niamey retaliated by expelling the Beninese embassy’s chargé d’affaires in turn, bringing the two West African neighbours to the brink of a full diplomatic rupture.
One detail in this sequence of cross-accusations deserves attention. This is not the first time a rumour of foreign involvement has surrounded these two events. As early as January 2026, a viral social media post claimed, without a shred of evidence, that Nigerien President Abdourahamane Tiani was involved in the coup attempt against Talon in December 2025. A fact-checking organisation quickly debunked the claim, noting the absence of any official account or tangible evidence to support it.
The new accusation made by Captain Gabriel therefore fits into a regional context where suspicions of foreign interference spread easily, fuelled by longstanding rivalries and persistent distrust between the region’s ruling powers. Niger, governed by a military junta since 2023, maintains a complicated relationship with several of its neighbours, particularly those that have remained close to ECOWAS and to Western powers such as France, which Niamey regularly singles out in this kind of affair.
For now, no concrete evidence has emerged to support the accusations levelled at Benin, Ivory Coast, Chad, France or ECOWAS. Captain Gabriel’s testimony remains, at this stage, an individual statement relayed by Nigerien military authorities, without any independent official confirmation of the facts he describes.
This latest diplomatic spat nonetheless illustrates just how fragile relations remain between Niger and its immediate neighbours since the junta seized power in Niamey. Between mutual suspicions of destabilisation, diplomat expulsions and repeated denials, the West African region continues to navigate a climate of distrust in which every coup attempt, successful or foiled, inevitably reignites tensions between neighbouring states.