Benin: Opposition calls for dialogue and national reconciliation as August 1st approaches
The Consultation Framework of Opposition Political Forces hosted a press conference on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Cotonou, highlighting its deep concerns about the current governance of the country. At the heart of their statements, a denunciation of what they describe as poor management of public resources and a worrying democratic decline, with direct consequences on the living conditions of the Beninese people.
SUMMARY
Representatives of the Framework specifically pointed out the increase in political imprisonments, infringements on fundamental freedoms, and violence targeting opposition members. They also mentioned cases of kidnappings, both nationally and abroad, which they perceive as serious threats to citizens’ safety.
Drawing on the latest report from Amnesty International, the speakers stressed the worsening repression climate as the 2026 general elections approach. According to them, the absence of political dialogue, the restriction of political parties’ expression space, and the isolation of dissenting voices compromise the democratic process.
Less than two weeks before the celebration of the 65th anniversary of Benin’s Independence, and as the last national holiday under President Patrice Talon is on the horizon, the Opposition Consultation Framework has made a solemn appeal to the current head of state. It invites him to release political prisoners, facilitate the return of exiles, and open honest, inclusive dialogue.
For the members of the Framework, these acts of openness are indispensable to restore national unity, preserve social peace, and ensure a peaceful democratic transition, in a spirit of reconciliation, at the dawn of a new political era.
Framework’s Statement
– Dear Friends of the Press!
– Opposition Activists!
– Supporters!
We meet for the umpteenth time today to bear witness to the national and international opinion on the concern of the whole nation, the concern of the opposition political forces, the concern of each one of us.
Indeed, the siphoning off of public resources, to use the words of our counterparts, and the stifling of any dissenting voice concerned about the evident poor governance that the current power in Benin exhibits today, leading to the exponential impoverishment of the people in our cities and countryside, is a well-known secret.
This already alarming situation, with massive imprisonments and political exiles at each election event, reflecting the brain drain that should contribute to sustainable development, has amplified in recent days.
Worse, freedoms are reduced to their simplest expression in disregard of international rules, laws of the Republic sometimes promulgated by the authors themselves, judicial decisions, and basic rules of living together.
Do we have the right to ignore the numerous bullying that the trade union world suffers even in its offices?
Moreover, you have followed the internal and border kidnappings we have endured in recent days (Julien KANDE KANSOU abducted from his home, Steeve AMOUSSOU abducted in TOGO, Comlan Hugues SOSSOUKPE kidnapped in Ivory Coast).
The icing on the cake, you have observed with us and with all the people, the causeless and repeated brutality with which the current power opposes the opposition’s accounts of its mandates.
The Amnesty International report of April 2025 says it all.
The persistence of this repression and these methods a few months before the general elections of 2026, the refusal to dialogue, and the maintenance of the electoral code, widely criticized by almost all the vital forces of the nation, not to mention the various obstacles to the freedom of assembly of parties, a member of the Consultation Framework of Opposition Political Forces and even trade unions, sufficiently prove the power’s determination to spread fear in order to avoid transparent, free, and fair elections and call on the people to prepare to mark them at the ballot box by moving massively towards the polls and rigorously deploying for mass surveillance.
All indications are, dear friends of the Press, that everything is purposely done to reinforce the opacity in which our country, our economy is managed, and to add to the consequences of the chaotic situation made of widespread fear pointing to the horizon 2026, which is nothing other than the result of successive bloodbaths imposed on our people on various occasions and a custom-made electoral code.
It is in this context that the events commemorating the 65th anniversary of the independence of our great and beautiful country, Benin of Béhanzin, Bio Guerra, and Kaba must take place.
This commemoration being the last to be celebrated under the auspices of President Patrice TALON, you agree with us, that they should be the occasion of a real gathering of the daughters and sons of Benin around a common unifying ideal and provoke a reconciliation of the nation with itself.
Therefore, in the face of growing concerns, we urgently call on President Patrice TALON to resolutely make the necessary gestures:
– Release of political prisoners,
– Return of political exiles,
– Political dialogue and, as far as possible, national assembly.
To be in line with the will of the people in order to give a particular glow and arouse popular support.
Long live national unity!
Thank you!
Cotonou, July 22, 2025
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