Benin’s military has been hit hard, and that’s putting it lightly. In what’s being called one of the deadliest assaults on the country’s armed forces, Islamist militants launched a brutal attack on one of Benin’s most fortified military positions in the northern region. Colonel Faizou Gomina, the national guard’s chief of staff, didn’t bother sharing the exact death toll, perhaps because the number is too shocking to admit, but the opposition party, The Democrats, claims about 30 soldiers were killed in the Alibori department. This region, by the way, conveniently borders Niger and Burkina Faso, both hotbeds of Islamist insurgency.
Benin’s military was caught off guard, and the consequences were devastating. Colonel Gomina himself admitted, “We’ve been dealt a very hard blow.” That’s one way to describe losing dozens of soldiers at a post that was supposedly “one of the strongest and most militarised.” If that’s the case, we can only imagine the state of the weaker positions. His desperate plea to military leaders to “wake up” and improve their leadership and tactics only confirms what many fear, the military was woefully unprepared.
It’s no secret that Benin, along with its coastal neighbor Togo, has been struggling to contain the growing threat of Islamist militants spilling over from the Sahel region. Groups tied to ISIS and al-Qaeda have been spreading like wildfire beyond their strongholds in West Africa, and now they’re at Benin’s doorstep. This isn’t the first attack, and at this rate, it certainly won’t be the last.
How did it get this bad? How does a “well-equipped” and “highly militarised” base fall so easily to insurgents? Either the military’s strategy is flawed, or leadership has been asleep at the wheel. Colonel Gomina’s call for officers and section chiefs to “wake up” suggests this disaster could’ve been avoided.
Benin cannot afford to keep playing small in this fight against terrorism. Islamist militants are advancing, and without serious reforms in military strategy and leadership, more soldiers will pay the price.
