Benin’s president, Thomas Boni Yayi, fired his entire cabinet to accelerate reforms aimed at alleviating poverty in the West African nation, his office said. The dismissal of the government comes as “new issues challenge” the country, Emmanuel Tiando, secretary-general in the presidency, said in remarks broadcast Fridayday on state television in the commercial capital, Cotonou.
“These new challenges focus on the need for further reforms in the spirit of cohesion and determination and require injecting a dynamic into a new government,” Tiando said. A new government will be appointed soon, Bloomberg reports him as saying. Yayi Boni, 61, has ruled Benin, situated between Nigeria and Togo and known as the birthplace of voodoo, since 2006 and won a second term in office in 2011.
In March, Beninese authorities said they foiled an attempted coup, the second in five months. A businessman and an army commander were arrested for plotting to install a military regime in the country.
Benin’s $7.3 billion economy relies on agriculture including cotton to generate more than a third of total output and provides employment for 70 percent of its workforce, according to the African Development Bank.
About a third of the country’s citizens live in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook. Yayi Boni thanked members of his cabinet who had“efforts to contribute to the success of our country to development,” Tiando said.