By John Ikani
The sound of heavy gunfire heard in Guinea Bissau’s capital created panic among some civil servants nearly a week after an attempted coup.
Masked assailants arrived at the station in the capital Bissau in 4×4s and started shooting and trashing radio equipment, according to one of its managers.
Capital Radio’s equipment – including its transmitter, mixing console and computers – were destroyed.
The station is an affiliate of the US international broadcaster, Voice of America (VOA), but it is not clear who carried out the attack or why.
“They forced me to kneel down and hit me with the butt of the Kalashnikov,” said one of the managers of Capital FM, who declined to be named.
“A colleague was wounded trying to escape,” he added. “Our equipment was destroyed. We stopped broadcasting.”
Capital FM is highly critical of the Government of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, 49, and is considered close to Guinea-Bissau’s formerly dominant African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).
The same radio station was previously targeted in July 2020.
After hearing the gunshots, some civil servants were seen fleeing home.
At least 11 people were killed last Tuesday when soldiers attempted to overthrow President Embaló, according to the authorities.
The President has announced an inquiry into the attempted coup.
Embalo, a reserve Brigadier General, took over office in February 2020 after winning an election that followed four years of political in-fighting under Guinea-Bissau’s semi-presidential system.
His chief opponent, PAIGC candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira, bitterly contested the result, but Embalo declared himself President without waiting for the outcome of his petition to the Supreme Court.
On Saturday, security forces also prevented PAIGC members from holding a meeting in Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau, a coastal state of around two million people south of Senegal, has suffered four military coups since 1974, its most recent in 2012.
