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Pakistan weighs Gaza deployment amid mounting domestic backlash; a Canberra lobbying firm bankrolls the launch of the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS group; and Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab documents a systematic RSF cover-up of mass atrocities in Darfur.

Our main story examines Benin’s failed coup, and what it reveals about both the reach and the limits of ECOWAS’s attempted revival as West Africa’s security guarantor.

Read more below ⤵️

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4️⃣ 🇸🇩 🇦🇪 Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab reveals mass RSF cover up in Darfur: Sudan’s UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces are conducting a coordinated campaign to conceal large-scale atrocities in el-Fasher, including burying, burning, and removing human remains, according to a new investigation by Yale’s HRL. The findings reinforce mounting allegations of mass atrocities in North Darfur as tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped inside the city.

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Major Story

🇧🇯 🇳🇬 🇬🇭 🇸🇱 BENIN’S FAILED COUP AND THE LIMITS OF ECOWAS’ REVIVAL

When mutinous soldiers appeared on Beninese television on 7 December claiming to have seized power, many across West Africa assumed the country had become the latest casualty in the region’s rolling coup wave. Since 2020, military takeovers have toppled governments from Mali to Niger. Yet in Benin, the script changed. By nightfall, President Patrice Talon remained in office, the coup attempt had collapsed, and regional forces were mobilising to secure the state.

Conflicting reports initially sowed confusion as gunfire echoed through Cotonou. While the plotters declared victory, loyalist units retained control, aided decisively by Nigeria and other neighbouring states. The episode quickly shifted attention beyond Benin itself to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a bloc widely criticised in recent years for its impotence in the face of serial coups.

ECOWAS acts — at last

Unlike its hesitant responses elsewhere, ECOWAS moved decisively. Standby troops from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone were deployed, while Nigerian aircraft struck rebel positions in Cotonou. French intelligence support further tipped the balance. Within hours, the putsch collapsed. Analysts argue the bloc saw Benin as a red line. Its proximity to Nigeria, reputation for democratic stability, and strategic coastline made its fall especially dangerous. Crucially, the coup plotters also miscalculated: they failed to detain Talon and lacked unified support within the armed forces, opening space for external intervention without triggering a full-scale civil conflict.

Nigeria’s role was central. Abuja could not afford instability spilling from northern Benin into its own fragile border regions, already strained by jihadist violence. Nor could it tolerate Benin drifting toward the Russia-aligned Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which would have handed the bloc a vital Atlantic port. For President Bola Tinubu, intervention offered a rare opportunity to project regional leadership after earlier ECOWAS setbacks.

A fragile victory

Despite the success, the episode does not signal a restored regional order. ECOWAS still faces a deep-seated credibility crisis, not least its failure to confront democratic erosion before crises erupt. Talon’s increasingly exclusionary politics, including the barring of opposition candidates, went largely unchallenged until violence loomed.

The Benin lesson instructs that while forceful intervention can stop a coup, it cannot substitute for sustained political accountability. Without earlier and firmer action on governance failures, ECOWAS risks treating symptoms rather than causes, and the next crisis may not offer such favourable conditions.

Other News

1️⃣ 🇵🇰 🇵🇸 Pakistan mulls Gaza deployment as army chief faces domestic backlash: Washington is urging Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to commit troops to a proposed Gaza stabilisation force, a move that could strain his carefully cultivated ties with President Donald Trump while provoking sharp domestic opposition. Munir is expected to raise the issue during an upcoming visit to Washington.

2️⃣ 🇦🇺 Lobbying firm funds launch of Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS group: A Canberra lobbying firm representing major defence contractors will underwrite the launch of a Parliamentary Friends of Aukus group at Parliament House, prompting warnings that the arrangement may breach parliamentary rules banning external sponsorship. The February event is being paid for by Precision Public Affairs, whose clients have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in government defence contracts. 

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