Africa News Broadcast 
Over the weekend, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was in Cotonou to meet with his counterpart Patrice Talon, to whom he promised military support in confronting jihadists spilling over its northern border from Burkina Faso.
“We are ready to work with Benin to prevent anything that might occur in its border zones,” Kigame said during a press conference held jointly with Talon. “There will be no limit in what would be accomplished together in terms of security challenges being presented.”
For his part, Talon said: “We will go as far as possible if its necessary. Benin is facing insecurity coming down from the Sahel and the threat is real in Northern Benin.”
According to the Beninois president who said he was “enthusiastic”, the Rwandan Army has “experience and is seasoned”. having intervened in in several countries. Talon added that the cooperation would include “supervision, coaching, training” and joint deployment” of troops, without offering further details.
Before their press conference. Talon and Kagame held a 90-minute tete-a-tete to discuss the quality of bilateral relations and “the search for strategic partnership” in several areas, including security, according to a government press release.
They discussed “the terrorist threat and its extension”, as well as ways to strengthen their cooperation to deal with it, the statement said.
Benin army chief of staff General Fructueux Gbaguidi had visited Rwanda last year to strengthen relations between the two armies. At the time, Benin announced that talks were ongoing about military and logistical cooperation with Rwanda, whose troops have already been deployed by Kagame to fight insurgencies in Mozambique and the Central African Republic.
A senior Beninois government official has said any agreement with Rwanda would not include the deployment of Rwandan forces on Benin soil.
Jihadists from Burkina Faso and NIger have made about 20 incursions into Benin from the north since
2021. Authorities in Burkina Faso are unable to contain an insurgency that is gaining ground just across the northern borders of four West African coastal countries namely Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote Ivoire.
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