On Monday June 17, Beninese justice sentenced three Nigerien nationals, arrested last week at the port of Sèmè-Kpodji, in Cotonou, to eighteen months’ suspended prison terms, in a context of diplomatic disagreement between the two countries.
Relations between Benin and Niger, tense since the military coup which overthrew the elected Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum in July 2023, have become significantly worse in recent weeks.
The main sticking point concerns Niger’s refusal to reopen its border.
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The three accused, including Moumouni Hadiza Ibra, the deputy general director of the oil company Wapco-Niger, were arrested on June 5 at the Beninese port of Sèmè-Kpodji, the place where Nigerien oil is loaded for export. Two other people also arrested at the same time were released on Friday.
The three accused were prosecuted for “false certificate” And “use of false certification”but the Court for the Repression of Economic Offenses and Terrorism (Criet) reclassified the facts on Monday as “usurpation of title” And “uses of falsified computer data”. La Criet followed the prosecutor’s requisitions by sentencing them to eighteen months in prison, suspended.
Cut the valves
All three pleaded not guilty during this hearing which lasted most of the day. Mme Ibra notably explained that his team had come “as part of the loading of the second ship” of oil with “an authorization from the Ministry of Mines and Water” Beninese. This episode constitutes an escalation in tensions between the two neighbors, the Nigerien authorities having mentioned a “kidnapping”.
This oil is essential for the economies of both countries and for the Chinese company Wapco which exploits it. A first ship was loaded in mid-May, but nothing since. Niger, despite the lifting of West African sanctions imposed for several months after the coup, refuses to reopen its border with Benin.
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Niamey accuses its neighbor of sheltering “French bases” which would lead to “terrorists”, which both Paris and Porto-Novo deny. However, Beninese President Patrice Talon makes it a condition for loading oil. The day after these arrests, the Nigerien military regime cut the valves on the pipeline which carries oil from northeastern Niger to Benin.
