He states that in the country there are about 20 “small military camps” whose function is to “guarantee security” and “fight against terrorism.”
May 14. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Benin has denied the existence of French military bases in the face of accusations in this regard by Niger and has stressed that they are “small military camps” intended to support the fight against terrorism and insecurity in the African country. .
“A military base is not a needle in a haystack. They can deploy satellite means to see if there is a base,” said the spokesman for the Beninese Executive, Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, following statements in this regard by the Nigerien military junta.
Thus, Houngbédji has stressed that these are “small military camps to guarantee security in the country and fight against terrorism”, according to the Banouto news portal. “There are about twenty and there are others planned, mainly in border towns. The head of state (Patrice Talon) spoke about it in his message on the state of the nation two years ago and it is known to the whole world,” he has ditched
Houngbédji’s words came days after Talon sent a message of reconciliation to Niamey to try to resolve the crisis that has opened since Niger closed its border with its neighboring country for security reasons, according to its authorities, a decision responded to by the Beninese Government. ordering the suspension of Nigerien oil exports through its territory.
“The current situation makes me very sad,” Talon said Saturday. “We are friendly and brother countries, and I was one of the first to advocate for the end of the sanctions against Niger,” he said, after the prime minister appointed by the junta, Ali Lamine Zeine, linked the refusal to reopen the border to “security reasons” derived in part from the alleged presence of French bases in Benin.
In this sense, Zeine affirmed that the decision to close the common border is “sovereign” and stressed that in the alleged French bases in Benin there are “terrorists” who “receive training” to “destabilize the country.” Niger suffers a spike in attacks by branches of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, within the framework of the increase in insecurity in the Sahel in recent years.
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