Armed men again raided Guinea Bissau’s broadcaster, Radio Capital FM on Monday, February 7, destroying broadcast equipment and journalists wounded.

Radio Capital FM presenter, Sabino Santos and the owner and director Lassana Cassamá said the men about four in number fired guns at the radio station in located Bissau, the country’s capital, broke into the office and ransacked it.

According to Santos and Cassamá, the attackers, some in military uniforms and others in civilian clothes, shot and destroyed broadcasting equipment throughout the office. The men also openly discussed whether to kill the station’s staff members, until one of them ordered that no one be harmed.

The staff members on the premises were able to flee, but several sustained injuries while escaping over the two-meter wall surrounding the building, as a police officer guarding the station fled as soon as the attack began.

The station often reports critically on the government of President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and that on the of the attack, the station had hosted a call-in show for listeners to comment on the country’s failed February 1 coup attempt.

Police have been stationed at the broadcaster following an attack in July 2020, when unidentified armed men smashed its broadcast equipment. Authorities have not identified any suspects in that attack.

Administrative assistant, Binghate Martins was at the broadcaster during the raid and told the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) that the attackers forced him to lay on the ground, fired gunshots near his feat, and beat him on his back with rifles.

Reporters Maimuna Bari, Bala Sambú, and Ansumane Sow, radio technicians Lassana Djassi, Bakar Kuiaté, and Alssene Kandé, and administrative worker Sana Mancal sustained injuries as they escaped over the wall surrounding the radio station.

According to Santos, Bari sustained a suspected spinal contusion and remained hospitalized; Djassi broke a leg, Sow broke an arm, and the others suffered minor injuries.

Sow also told CPJ in a phone call that he broke his right arm when he slipped and fell trying to climb the wall as attackers fired their initial shots outside the building and was treated at a private clinic in Bissau.

Santos further disclosed that the attackers shot nine computers, two sound mixing tables, and all the station’s security cameras, and the attack lasted about five minutes.

“Their intentions to wreck the equipment were clear,” he said, adding that the broadcaster was off the air indefinitely due to a lack of functioning equipment.

Meanwhile, CPJ has called on the country’s authority to thoroughly investigate the latest attack on broadcaster Radio Capital FM, ensure the safety of its staff, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

“Authorities in Guinea-Bissau must ensure that this time around, those responsible for attacking Radio Capital FM and terrorizing its journalists and media workers are arrested and held to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator,” CPJ said.

“The continued impunity for attacks on journalists in Guinea-Bissau has given armed thugs the license, once again, to destroy equipment and force off air a radio station critical of the government of President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, believing that there will be no consequences.”

The station’s premises have since been sealed by the judicial police, to investigate the attack, with no prediction on when they it would be released or the station coming back on air.

The deputy director of the judicial police, Cornélia Viera, told CPJ in a phone interview that she did not know when the premises would be unsealed, as it would depend on when the investigation was completed. She said she could not comment further as the case was under investigation.

Also, in comments to journalists yesterday, the deputy commissioner of the public order police, Salvador Soares, described the attack as “an isolated act.” Santos disagreed with that framing, asking, “how is this an isolated act if the Ministry of Interior has had two officers at the door since the last attack?”

Indira Baldé, head of the local journalists’ trade union SINJOTECS, told CPJ that the attack “goes to show journalists are not safe while doing our jobs in Guinea-Bissau.”

Last year, Santos along with Radio Capital FM host Sumba Nancil also faced a criminal defamation investigation, over his work. The case was later dropped for lack of evidence, Santos said.