Benin 2014
Yearbook 2014
Benin. Benin population in 2020 is estimated at 12,123,211. President Thomas Boni Yayi reformed the government in August. He replaced other finance and defense ministers. The new ministers were considered to be close to the president, who is believed to be trying to strengthen his grip on the upcoming elections. In 2015 it is parliamentary elections and the following year is presidential elections. Yayi’s term expires in 2016.
Thousands of people demonstrated in late October in the city of Cotonou to hold delayed local elections. The government appealed for calm. Concerns have been bubbling since 2013 when the Election Commission announced that local elections could not be conducted as a result of problems in determining voting lengths. The protests were preceded by news from, among others, Yayi that the election was not possible to conduct in 2014. But a turnaround was noticed after the protests. Yayi met with the Election Commission to speed up the work. The turmoil in neighboring Burkina Faso that forced away that country’s longtime president Blaise Compaoré may have been recorded.
According to topb2bwebsites, the investigation into a suspected conspiracy to poison the president, which was revealed in 2012, was closed in May. On TV, Yayi said he had pardoned businessman Patrice Talon, who had moved to France. Benin had tried in vain to have Talon surrendered. Talon had previously funded several of Yayi’s election campaigns. Yayi’s life doctor and a sibling were also pardoned.
Population
Compared to previous decades, the territorial distribution of the population (in 1998, according to official estimates by the United Nations, had reached $ 5. 781. 000 units) has become even more irregular: in the coastal region of the country will exceed 200 residents / km, while in the central-northern belt, where natural resources are considerably more scarce, the population density drops to values below 50, and even to about ten residents / km in the border areas with Niger and Burkina Faso. The growth rate, which was already very high, increased further during the 1990s, reaching 29% average annual. The strong demographic pressure was not matched by an adequate growth of the country’s social infrastructures, as evidenced by the worrying values of some indicators relating to health conditions and the organization of education (in the mid-1990s there were almost 16,500 residents physician, infant mortality was still close to 90 %, illiterate people reached 63 %).
A traditional relief valve is represented by emigration, which at first directed almost exclusively towards Nigeria, then, since the latter closed the borders, it was oriented above all towards Ghana. Poor is the share of the urban population (40 % in 1997): in fact the only true cities are Porto Novo and Cotonou (respectively 179. 000 and 536. 000 residents In 1994). For the rest, the prevailing form of settlement remained the village, with different structures and types of housing according to the natural environment.
