Benin: Violent Crime Threatens Markets, Livelihoods

Cotonou — A recent increase in violent crime threatens to further impoverish Benin by choking off small business, according to law enforcement and arms control officials.Police in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou link this year’s spike in armed robberies and violent crime to small arms trafficking, as well as the growing desperation of people who can no longer afford to cover their basic needs.In the past two months at least seven people have died and dozens more were seriously injured in a series of bank robberies, mostly in Cotonou. “People are looking for any means necessary to make ends meet,” the head of Cotonou’s police headquarters, Constant Sossou, told IRIN.