he Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the armed attack on the private radio station Radio Capital FM, based in Bissau, and demands rigorous investigations into the incident.
On February 7, 2022, at around 10 a.m., a group of men in military uniform stormed the radio station and reduced the premises to rubble. Firing indiscriminately to scare the staff, the hooded attackers broke into the radio station’s studios and destroyed all the equipment in sight; furniture, consoles, computers, mixers and transmitters.
Figure 1 – Ansumane was only treated for a fractured arm after the attack.
Three journalists were also injured. One of them, Ansumane Só, was rushed to the Military Hospital in Bissau for treatment of a fractured arm. The others are Maimuna Bari and Bala Sambú. Maimuna Bari is currently in a coma. Doctors say his condition is critical, having suffered injuries to his ribs and spine after a four-meter fall.
Other employees who were injured trying to escape the attack are Lassana Djassi, Bakar Kuiaté and Alssene Kandé.
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The attack comes six days after a failed coup attempt claimed the lives of a dozen people at the presidential palace, where the Cabinet was in session. Capital Radio is a highly critical media organization, perceived as being against the current government. This is the second time in less than two years that the station has been attacked by unidentified men in uniform.
On July 26, 2020, a group of armed men in police uniforms broke into the station and destroyed its equipment. Although the Minister of the Interior, Botché Candé, visited the station after the attack and assured the administration of rigorous investigations, nothing happened.
About two weeks after the incident, thirty radio stations across the country suspended broadcasting for 24 hours in solidarity with Radio Capital FM and to demand action from the authorities.
Figure 2 Bullet casings left after the armed soldiers were shot.
The executive director of Radio Capital FM, Lassana Cassamá, lamented: “They destroyed the radio again,” in an apparent reference to the July 2020 attack.
Sumba Nansil, head of training and capacity building at Capital Radio, told MFWA that the latest attack was spurred on by a lack of accountability for the previous one. However, the station reported the incident to the police. The police went to the station to assess the extent of the damage caused.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has denied allegations of government involvement in the attack. Speaking at a press conference hours after the incident, the Deputy Commissioner for Public Order at the Ministry, Salvador Soares, also rejected allegations that the government had lost control of law and order.
“The situation is now calm and people can return to their daily lives,” assured the government official, adding that the attack was an “isolated incident”.
Diamantino Lopes, a journalist with SINJOTECS, the MFWA’s national partner in Guinea-Bissau, told the MFWA that “there are no legal reasons for this invasion by armed men. It’s simply an abuse of power. You can’t attack a radio station simply because you disagree with its editorial line,” he added.
A delegation from SINJOTECS visited the premises to condemn the attack and express solidarity with the media outlet. Fátima Tchuma Camará, vice-president of SINJOTECS, described the attack as an “attempt to silence Radio Capital FM”. She added that people can always go to court if they have a disagreement with a radio station, rather than attacking and looting a radio station’s premises.
The MFWA is deeply concerned about the attack on Radio Capital, which adds to the climate of insecurity created by the attempted coup on February 1, 2022. This cowardly attack, aimed at intimidating the media, cannot be tolerated in any democratic society. The MFWA hopes that the military authorities are equally concerned about the incident, especially since the perpetrators were reportedly dressed in military uniform. We call on the government to make amends for its failure to uncover the previous attack on Capital radio by acting promptly and decisively this time to arrest and punish the culprits.
