Fiacre Vidjingninou

Biography

Fiacre Vidjingninou joined the Africa Programme of the Egmont Institute as a Senior Associate Fellow in September 2025. He is a Beninese journalist, analyst and researcher, with a PhD in military sociology (University of Rennes 2, 2023). His thesis, “Three decades of army professionalization in Benin (1990-2020): from a praetorian force to a republican army,” was defended with jury congratulations and recommended for publication. A former field correspondent — Reuters in Bouaké, Syfia and Radio Nederland — he subsequently covered news for AFP and collaborated with France 24 and TV5, before joining Jeune Afrique to cover Benin, Togo and Nigeria.

Founder of the Behanzin Institute, he conducts research on social transformations, security and governance in West Africa. As a risk & compliance consultant, he performs due diligences, country notes and rigorous integrity investigations for investors and companies, particularly in banking, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure. His recent analyses focus on jihadist expansion from the Sahel to coastal states, armed forces professionalization and the resurgence of developmentalist theories.

As an educator, he works with students and decision-makers and leads strategic conferences. Bilingual in French and English, he publishes scientific articles, magazine investigations and decision-making memos, favoring an embodied, sourced and accessible writing style.

At the crossroads of fieldwork and research, Fiacre Vidjingninou defends a simple conviction: understanding societies and their actors in depth is the condition for lucid public and private decision-making in a rapidly changing West Africa.