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1 1 (March 11, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveooe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congr ssianaI Research Be Iifringi he~ eIaivednbate sice1914 March 11, 2024 Benin Benin is an emergent U.S. security partner in West Africa, a region that has seen a wave of military coups, the spillover of Islamist insurgent violence from the Sahel, and growing Russian influence. Democratic backsliding under President Patrice Talon has complicated U.S. engagement, however. Benin is a focus country under the U.S. Global Fragility Act (see below). Benin has also offered 2,000 troops to a U.S.- backed, Kenyan-led stabilization force planned for Haiti. Possible issues for Congress include oversight of U.S. aid and security cooperation amid challenging regional trends. Politics and Governance Benin transitioned to multiparty politics in 1990 after decades of military and one-party rule, leading to a series of peaceful, competitive elections. President Talon, first elected in 2016, has instituted a semi-authoritarian regime, however, sidelining the opposition and restricting freedoms of assembly and the press. New candidacy laws led to the disqualification of all opposition candidates in the 2019 National Assembly elections. State security forces dispersed protests and arrested opposition politicians ahead of the vote. In 2021, Talon won reelection against two little- known challengers, after the electoral commission disqualified more prominent candidates. Over 100 people were arrested during the 2021 elections period, and a special Court for the Repression of Economic and Terrorism Infractions later sentenced two opposition leaders to jail based on virtually no evidence, according to the State Department. Authorities have also arrested journalists and activists. The U.S.-based organization Freedom House downgraded Benin from Free to Partly Free in 2020. The government has tentatively reopened some space for the opposition since 2022. Dozens of opposition supporters were released from jail that year, and opposition parties won 28 out of 109 seats in 2023 National Assembly elections. The next presidential election is slated for 2026, when President Talon will face term limits. Talon has pledged not to seek reelection. His predecessor Thomas Boni Yayi floated constitutional changes that could have paved the way to a third term, but ultimately stepped down. A member of parliament in Talon's coalition proposed amendments in early 2024 to alter the election timeline, but these did not garner sufficient support to advance. Security Benin reported its first Islamist militant attack in 2019, when two French tourists and their local guide were kidnapped from a national park. (The French military rescued the tourists in neighboring Burkina Faso, also freeing an American and a South Korean hostage.) The Islamist armed group presence in Benin was previously temporary, transitory and often limited in nature, per one analysis. Since then, security conditions near Benin's northern borders have deteriorated; some 150 violent incidents were reported in 2023. Figure I. Benin at a Glance Sources: CIA World I-actbook, iM-; 2U23 estimates unless noted. Two U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations are reportedly active in northern Benin: a regional Al Qaeda affiliate known as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (aka JNIM) and the Islamic State (IS) Sahel affiliate. These Sahel-based groups have reportedly established a presence in cross-border national parks, where they allegedly tax local commerce and engage in smuggling, gold trafficking, and other illicit economic activity. U.N. global terrorism monitors have also relayed reports that the IS's Nigeria-based affiliate (IS-West Africa) profits from ivory poaching in Benin. Some analysts assert that violence in northern Benin is shifting from a foreign- based insurgency to a nascent civil conflict, with JNIM cells increasingly locally embedded. Ethnic and sectarian divisions may elevate risks of conflict in the north, where Benin's Muslim minority population is concentrated. Some analysts warn that extremists might leverage grievances among the Peul (Fulani/Fulbe), a historically pastoralist, mainly Muslim ethnic group present across West and Central Africa. Tensions over conservation areas-where restricted access has disrupted local livelihoods-appear to provide additional opportunities for extremists, who have reportedly opened areas under their control to farming, grazing, and small-scale mining. Benin's government has expanded military deployments in the north, engaged in rapid military recruitment, and sought to procure military equipment from a range of countries including France, Turkey, China, and Russia. Benin also has pursued bilateral cooperation with Rwanda, which has offered to send troops to support counterterrorism. Benin participates in an African Union-authorized regional military force to combat Nigeria-based Boko Haram and IS- West Africa. About 250 Beninese troops served in the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Mali prior to its closure in late 2023; smaller numbers of Beninese personnel continue to serve in other U.N. missions. 0

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