First death following post-election violence in Benin

Hundreds of protesters in Benin holding burning barricades challenged police and soldiers on Thursday after violence erupted as a result of controversial parliamentary polls held without an opposition candidate.

A woman died Thursday after being injured the day before, medical sources said, and a man was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound in the back.

Hours after the first results, soldiers and a large number of police deployed Wednesday in the economic capital of Cotonou recorded a record participation rate.

Supporters of former President Thomas Boni Yayi, who had called for boycott voting, took to the streets.

They erected improvised barriers with burning tires and chanted slogans against President Patrice Talon.

Fire

Protesters burned shops, threw stones and smashed the windows of government buildings. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and protesters tried to throw cartridges.

On Thursday, they continued to protest for a second day.

"Nobody has slept," said a protester Thursday morning, who called Justin B.

"At around 10 pm, they cut off the light and fired live ammunition," he said, pointing to two empty sockets and blood stains on the floor.

In the Cadjehoun neighborhood of Cotonou, where Boni Yayi's house is located, a resident 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.

Interior Minister, Sacca Lafia, said that security forces had been ordered to the streets to stop the protests, but announced that information they were trying to to stop Boni Yayi were "false information".

Factory burned

Violence has also been reported in the town of Kandi, some 620 kilometers to the north, where one of the country's largest cotton factories – an area in which President Talon made a fortune before embarking on politics – was fire. .

"The protesters set the factory on fire at night, we still have no idea of ​​the damage, but they are huge, everything burned," said a firefighter.

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.

A little over one in five electors went to the Sunday election. By Yanick Folly (AFP)

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.

According to preliminary results, only 22.99% of registered voters voted.

Participation has never been less than 50% since the country's democratic transition in 1990.

After the vote, Boni Yayi and Nicéphore Soglo, president from 1991 to 1996, voted against the elections.

"The people demand the return of democracy," Boni Yayi told reporters on Monday, calling on the population to resist the incumbent president. "Talon will walk on our bodies."

The situation has prompted warnings from civil society and rights groups inside and outside Benin.

Before voting, Amnesty International said that a "wave of arbitrary arrests of political activists and journalists, as well as repression of peaceful demonstrations" had reached an "alarming level".