On October 1, 2020, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Benin Patricia Mahoney and Benin’s Minister of Interior Sacca Lafia signed a Letter of Agreement (LOA) formally establishing West Africa’s first Special Program for Embassy Augmentation and Response (SPEAR) team in a non-high threat country. In a small ceremony, high ranking officials from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Republican Police, the Embassy Cotonou’s Regional Security Officer (RSO) and Assistant Regional Security Officer (ARSO), and local print and broadcast media witnessed the LOA signing of SPEAR as the largest law enforcement security assistance program ever delivered by the embassy.
More than two years of lobbying, planning, and negotiating occurred between the U.S. Embassy Cotonou Regional Security Office, the Diplomatic Security Service’s Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program, Benin’s MOI and the Republican Police.
The agreement could not have come at a more important moment in Benin’s modern history. The country is in the beginning stages of dealing with Sahel-based terrorism, which has placed Benin’s national security at increased risk.
The SPEAR team, a 48-person quick reaction force, will be tasked with providing skilled tactical response support for U.S. Embassy Cotonou, the larger diplomatic community, and the Government of Benin’s (GOB) infrastructure during critical incidents. Additionally, SPEAR will form a train-the-trainer cadre that will eventually allow for continuous training of other GOB law enforcement and security services.
U.S. Embassy Cotonou’s success in obtaining a SPEAR team for Benin was due in large part to the excellent relationship between the embassy’s RSO and Benin’s director general of the Republican Police.
The SPEAR program was created in 2014 in response to the Benghazi Accountability Review Board. SPEAR’s stated mission is to develop, support, and strengthen partner nation security forces for the purpose of enhancing the security of the U.S. diplomatic community.