Timbuktu Institute - Week 3 September 2026

For the past few months, the security front in northern Benin appears to have been experiencing a lull. Admittedly, this does not mean the security threat has been fully contained, but the country continues to step up efforts aimed at bending the curve of jihadist violence on its territory. According to a study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), the number of people killed by terrorist groups reportedly fell from 277 to 81 within a year, a drop of 78%. This trend is attributed in particular to the increase in the army’s manpower and resources, the operations conducted under Operation Mirador and socio-economic measures designed to reduce community tensions. However, this improvement is by no means a return to normal. While terrorism-related deaths have risen by 77% across the continent since 2021, particularly in the Sahel, Benin’s lull may remain fragile, insofar as the terrorist group JNIM continues its attempts to expand there.

The extension, on 14 September, of exceptional measures in certain northern areas provides a concrete illustration. The government has indeed decided to relocate schools located in localities exposed to incursions by armed groups, in order, according to the government, to “protect children and (…) avoid exposing the population, particularly pupils and their teachers”. The exact number of schools, pupils and teachers affected has not been specified. The measure concerns localities in around ten municipalities bordering Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, including Karimama and Matéri. Pupils and their teachers are therefore to move to secure sites, away from areas deemed sensitive. Hence, behind the fall in casualties, this decision is a reminder of a more mundane reality: in the north of the country, the threat continues to weigh on the ordinary conditions of daily life.

A respite under watch

Certainly, the fall in fatalities is therefore an important indicator, but it cannot on its own reflect how the threat is evolving. The increase in resources devoted to the armed forces, the security operations conducted under Mirador and the initiatives aimed at reducing tensions likely to fuel instability reflect the continued vigilance guiding Benin’s security policy. On 15 September, the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Djibril Mama Cissé, thus received a delegation from the US National Guard. The talks focused on strengthening cooperation on security and civil protection, notably around the partnership with the Beninese Civil Protection Agency. The American delegation also presented new support projects in several areas of common interest.

With European partners, Benin’s approach follows the same logic. In Cotonou, the Minister Delegate for National Defence, Gildas Agonkan, held talks on 15 September with the new Italian ambassador, Roberto Mengoni, on ways to strengthen the military partnership. This already rests on personnel training, but the two sides are now considering extending it to other sectors matching the needs of the Beninese Armed Forces. Minister Agonkan expressed his wish to intensify exchanges and identify new areas of support and experience-sharing, while the Italian diplomat reaffirmed Rome’s readiness to support Benin in defending and protecting its territory. This momentum is part of an already substantial European cooperation. In 2024, the European Union had mobilised 35 million euros for the Beninese armed forces, notably for equipment, training, medical capabilities, medical evacuation and surveillance. The opening of new channels with Rome, like the deepening of the partnership with Washington, is thus part of a broader drive to diversify external support as security needs evolve.

Rwanda’s support, from intelligence to technology

It is, however, with Rwanda that this search for new capabilities takes on a particularly technological dimension. On 16 September, President Romuald Wadagni travelled to Kigali to meet Paul Kagame, as part of a tour of Central Africa. Cooperation between Benin and Rwanda had already been initiated under Patrice Talon in the administrative, digital and security fields. The two leaders agreed to continue exchanges in the civil service, notably through the secondment of Beninese officials to Rwandan administrations, in order to draw on Kigali’s experience in digitalising public services and developing digital identity. This administrative cooperation also has a security dimension. Benin’s unique identification number project certainly aims to better centralise citizens’ data, but it also includes a component relating to the strengthening of certain telecommunications surveillance capabilities. Intelligence is thus one of the central pillars of the rapprochement with Kigali. Benin’s services could notably gain access to certain Rwandan technologies for telecommunications surveillance and satellite imagery exploitation.

In this respect, Rwanda has American technologies for analysing satellite images, notably using artificial intelligence, in order to track population movements and detect movements considered suspicious. For Benin, these capabilities would be particularly useful in the northern departments, where jihadist incursions have intensified. They could help identify the routes used by fighters, as well as certain sites serving as bases or caches for weapons, ammunition or fuel. After Kigali, the Beninese president travelled to Brazzaville on 17 September to meet his Congolese counterpart Denis Sassou-N’Guesso. The discussions covered bilateral relations and several issues of common interest, although their precise content was not made public. No new agreement or concrete partnership was announced at the end of the meeting. The trip is nonetheless part of a rapprochement under way since Wadagni took office. A few months earlier, Congo had sent Françoise Joly, Sassou-N’Guesso’s personal representative, to Cotonou, carrying a message from the Congolese president and tasked with discussing with the Beninese authorities ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation.

The relative lull observed in the north of the country therefore does not mean the risk has disappeared; rather, it seems to open a phase in which Benin appears to be moving from a logic of responding to sudden attacks towards a more diffuse architecture of prevention, in which intelligence, technology, military cooperation and control of border areas converge. In this respect, a shift is taking shape, in that Benin is now seeking to make anticipation a fully-fledged component of its defence.