Twenty-four hours apart, two new attacks mourned northern Benin. Monday, May 1, around 11 p.m., the first took place in the village of Kaobagou (commune of Kérou, department of Atacora). According to several sources, unidentified armed individuals broke into a farm about twenty kilometers from the border with Burkina Faso. “A hundred men arrived, mostly on motorcycles, and split into several small groups, a local source told Le Monde. Fifteen villagers had their throats slit. One of the bodies having been trapped with a homemade bomb, two other people were killed. »
A dozen villagers are also missing. “They are all young men, assures this same source. Have they been kidnapped? Nobody knows. Raids in often isolated villages allow armed groups to enlist new fighters or obtain information on future targeted areas. Snapshots, which Le Monde could not authenticate, show four bodies of men with their throats slit, including one with his hands shackled behind his back. “Did we really need this barbarity? In the name of what ? “, was indignant on his Facebook page Kamel Ouassagari, opposition deputy (Les Démocrates), originally from Kérou: “There are no words capable of relieving such pain. »
The Beninese authorities rarely communicate on the attacks which affect the northern part of the country. Thursday, May 4, however, they made it known that they were requesting the opening of an investigation. The day after the offensive in Kaobagou, three other people had their throats cut and a fourth was abducted in the village of Guimbagou (commune of Banikoara, department of Alibori). According to several testimonies, families are now seeking to flee the area, where the army has been deployed to carry out searches.
A “sanctuary” in Burkina
Like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, Benin is struggling in its northern part against the growing threat of jihadists who wish to extend their territory towards the Gulf of Guinea. The attacks have not been claimed, but all eyes are on the fighters of the Islamic State (IS) group and the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), present massively in the region. “The intensity and frequency of the attacks in Benin can be partly explained by the fact that the jihadists have a sanctuary in the east of neighboring Burkina Faso, allowing them to circulate for several years already in the two Beninese parks of the W et de la Pendjari,” explains a report by the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) published in February 2022.
In April, Beninese authorities claimed to have recorded about 20 incursions by armed groups into the territory since 2021. “When these criminals try to establish themselves and do not succeed because there is a response from the defense forces and of security, they work to demoralize the populations by carrying out reprisal operations of this nature and also macabre, declared Wilfried Houngbedji, spokesperson for the government, Thursday during a press conference. They want to shock people and make them believe that they will only be saved by rallying to their cause. »
On the edge of the Pendjari park, the village of Kaobagou appears today as the epicenter of the violence. Since February 3, ten events linked to terrorist groups or intercommunity tensions have been recorded there by the Netherlands Institute for International Relations Clingendael. On April 12, two men accused of being associated with jihadists were arrested in Kaobagou and transferred to the Court for the Suppression of Economic Crimes and Terrorism (Criet). On February 28, a violent clash broke out there between women of the Gourmantché and Fulani ethnic groups, a community often accused of collaborating with terrorists. Around February 24, an unidentified armed group conducted a recruitment campaign in and around Kaobagou.
Intercommunity tensions
“The village, by its geographical position, near the Pendjari and the Burkinabe border, is located in one of the most important crossing areas”, analyzes Kars de Bruijne, researcher specializing in conflicts within Clingendael and author of a report published in December 2022: “It has also long been subject to strong inter-communal tensions between the Fulani and the Gourmantché. After the attack on the evening of May 1, another reportedly occurred two days later. »
In the face of the violence, the Beninese government plans to recruit 5,000 men to help its security forces protect the borders. After basic training, the new recruits, aged 18 to 30, will be deployed in a few months alongside the army in threatened areas already subject to a curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Benin could also appeal to Rwanda, whose troops have already been deployed in Mozambique and the Central African Republic. After talks last year, a new level in military and logistical cooperation between the two countries was reached in April during the visit of Paul Kagame to Cotonou. “We are ready to work with Benin to prevent anything that may happen around its borders,” the Rwandan president said. “We will go as far as possible [with Rwanda] if necessary,” added Patrice Talon, his Beninese counterpart.
