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Protesters in Benin were stuck in a tense standoff Thursday between police and soldiers after the violence began as a result of controversial parliamentary polls held without a single candidate.
A few hours after the first results, the number of soldiers and the large number of police deployed Wednesday in the economic capital of Contonou posted a record participation rate.
Supporters of former president Boni Yayi, who had called for a boycott of the polls, took to the streets.
They erected improvised barriers with burning tires and chanted slogans against President Patrice Talon.
Protesters burned shops, threw stones and smashed the windows of government buildings. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
They continued their protests all night and remained in the street on Thursday.
"Nobody has slept," said a protester Thursday morning, who called Justin B.
"Around 10 pm, they cut the light and fired live ammunition," he said, pointing to two empty sockets and blood stains on the floor. "Two people were seriously injured, a man and a woman."
In the Cadjehoun neighborhood of Cotonou, where Yayi Boni's house is located, an inhabitant also reportedly heard gunshots.
"We do not know at all what is going to happen now, but we think it is bad," said one woman, but she felt safe enough to allow children to "get out of bed. go to school on Thursday.
The small West African state has been touted as a model of democracy, but the situation has prompted warnings from civil society and human rights groups in Benin and Somalia. foreign.
The new eligibility criteria prevented opposition parties from running in the parliamentary elections last Sunday.
The same day, more than three quarters of the five million registered voters in the country remained at home.
Participation has never been less than 50% since the country's democratic transition in 1990.
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