Benin’s UN address: security cooperation and multilateralism at the fore
Benin took the floor at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where foreign minister Corinne Amori Brunet delivered the country’s national statement on the final day of the general debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. She appeared alongside the permanent mission led by ambassador Marc Hermanne Araba, Benin’s permanent representative to the intergovernmental body.
The speech came at a closely watched slot in the speaking order, with the head of Beninese diplomacy taking the podium immediately after the delegations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
UN principles translated into concrete action on the ground
The address carries major diplomatic weight as Benin wraps up its term chairing the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. Far from purely theoretical declarations of intent, the message delivered in New York rests on a comprehensive security doctrine that Cotonou is actively deploying at national and regional levels.
Operational response and state presence: Operation Mirador
In response to pressure from armed terrorist groups along the northern border zone, Benin has launched Operation Mirador. This preventive and defensive military arrangement aims to lock down the Pendjari and W national parks and secure rural communities. The Beninese army pairs it with a reinforced territorial grid built through mass recruitment and training of new security personnel to close the operational gaps exploited by violent groups.
Regional cooperative grid: the Accra Initiative
On the sub-regional diplomatic and military front, Benin remains one of the driving pillars of the Accra Initiative, alongside Ghana, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and the Sahel countries. This mechanism puts into practice on the ground the orientations defended at the UN podium:
- Tactical information sharing: regular and direct exchanges between intelligence services to track cross-border movements.
- Joint operations: coordinated actions on both sides of borders to prevent armed groups from retreating from one territory to another.
Social prevention and development of border areas
For Cotonou, the security response cannot be exclusively military. Through the Beninese Agency for Integrated Management of Border Areas (ABeGIEF), the state invests directly in basic infrastructure in the north of the country — schools, water points, health centres and rural tracks. The goal is to stem the feeling of abandonment, strengthen the resilience of marginalised communities and cut extremist recruitment networks off at the root.
Community security and early warning
The Beninese government is betting on strengthening the army-nation bond. Through the deployment of citizen alert mechanisms and dedicated hotlines, local populations are brought into the preventive intelligence chain. This inclusive approach aims to build a climate of mutual trust essential to countering the infiltration of clandestine networks.
In a tense sub-regional context, the advocacy carried to New York by the Beninese delegation sums up a clear doctrine: combining operational firmness at the borders, socio-economic investment in populations and pragmatic multilateral cooperation with all neighbouring partners.