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82-590: Añisoc is a town in Equatorial Guinea . It is located in the province of Wele-Nzas and has a (2008 est.) population of 12,705 This Equatorial Guinea location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea , officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea , is a country on the west coast of Central Africa , with an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). Formerly

164-488: A March 2004 BBC profile, politics within the country were dominated by tensions with Obiang's son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue . In 2004, a planeload of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow Obiang. A November 2004 report named Mark Thatcher as a financial backer of the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt organized by Simon Mann . Various accounts also named

246-562: A US-based international private military company , has worked in Equatorial Guinea to train police forces in appropriate human rights practices. In 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed Obiang as a "good friend" despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record. The US Agency for International Development entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Obiang in April 2006 to establish

328-424: A bloody coup d'état ; over two weeks of civil war ensued until Macías Nguema was captured. He was tried and executed soon afterward, with Obiang succeeding him as a less bloody, but still authoritarian president. In 1995, Mobil , an American oil company, discovered oil in Equatorial Guinea. The country subsequently experienced rapid economic development, but earnings from the country's oil wealth have not reached

410-592: A good command of Spanish. Equatorial Guinea's government is totalitarian and has one of the worst human rights records in the world , consistently ranking among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House 's annual survey of political and civil rights . Reporters Without Borders ranks Obiang among its "predators" of press freedom. Human trafficking is a significant problem, with the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report identifying Equatorial Guinea as

492-525: A loss of privileges and 'swamping' by the Fang majority, and the Río Muni Fang nationalists on the other. At the conference, the leading Fang figure, the later first president Francisco Macías Nguema , gave a controversial speech in which he claimed that Adolf Hitler had "saved Africa". After nine sessions, the conference was suspended due to deadlock between the "unionists" and "separatists" who wanted

574-449: A mainland region. The insular region consists of the islands of Bioko (formerly Fernando Pó ) in the Gulf of Guinea and Annobón , a small volcanic island which is the only part of the country south of the equator . Bioko Island is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea and is the site of the country's capital, Malabo . The Portuguese-speaking island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe

656-792: A major toll on European settlers from the beginning, and it would be centuries before attempts restarted. In 1778, Queen Maria I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain signed the Treaty of El Pardo which ceded Bioko , adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the Bight of Biafra between the Niger and Ogoue rivers to Spain in exchange for large areas in South America that are now Western Brazil. Brigadier Felipe José, Count of Arjelejos formally took possession of Bioko from Portugal on 21 October 1778. After sailing for Annobón to take possession,

738-657: A measure of influence there. For the USSR, there was an advantage to be gained in the war in Angola from access to Luba base and later on to Malabo International Airport . In 1974, the World Council of Churches affirmed that large numbers of people had been murdered since 1968 in an ongoing reign of terror . A quarter of the entire population had fled abroad, they said, while 'the prisons are overflowing and to all intents and purposes form one vast concentration camp'. Out of

820-455: A military base near the city of Bata , causing 98 deaths and 600 people being injured and treated at the hospital. In November 2022, Obiang was re-elected in the 2022 Equatorial Guinean general election with 99.7% of the vote amid accusations of fraud by the opposition. The current president of Equatorial Guinea is Teodoro Obiang. The 1982 constitution of Equatorial Guinea gives him extensive powers, including naming and dismissing members of

902-533: A month, including both professionals and the general public. It offers resources and services to teachers, students, translators, journalists and other professionals involved with the Spanish language, and as well as to Hispanists throughout the world, who study Hispanic cultures, and to any person who is interested in the language and Hispanic cultures. It also includes announcements of cultural events (Actos Culturales), four discussion forums, each of which focuses on

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984-417: A population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 were killed. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the ethnic minority Bubi people , Macias Nguema ordered the deaths of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economy's collapse as skilled citizens and foreigners fled the country. The nephew of Macías Nguema, Teodoro Obiang deposed his uncle on 3 August 1979, in

1066-575: A purge on Christmas Eve 1969, all of whom were political opponents. Macias Nguema further consolidated his totalitarian powers by outlawing opposition political parties in July 1970 and making himself president for life in 1972. He broke off ties with Spain and the West. In spite of his condemnation of Marxism , which he deemed " neo-colonialist ", Equatorial Guinea maintained special relations with communist states , notably China, Cuba, East Germany and

1148-562: A referendum of 15 December 1963, gave the territory a measure of autonomy and the administrative promotion of a 'moderate' group, the Movimiento de Unión Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial  [ es ] (MUNGE). This was unsuccessful, and, with growing pressure for change from the UN, Madrid was gradually forced to give way to the currents of nationalism. Two General Assembly resolutions were passed in 1965 ordering Spain to grant independence to

1230-508: A separate Fernando Pó. Macías resolved to travel to the UN to bolster international awareness of the issue, and his firebrand speeches in New York contributed to Spain naming a date for both independence and general elections. In July 1968 virtually all Bubi leaders went to the UN in New York to try and raise awareness for their cause, but the world community was uninterested in quibbling over the specifics of colonial independence. The 1960s were

1312-651: A social development fund in the country, implementing projects in the areas of health, education, women's affairs and the environment. In 2006, Obiang signed an anti-torture decree banning all forms of abuse and improper treatment in Equatorial Guinea, and commissioned the renovation and modernization of Black Beach prison in 2007 to ensure the humane treatment of prisoners. However, human rights abuses have continued. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International among other non-governmental organizations have documented severe human rights abuses in prisons, including torture, beatings, unexplained deaths and illegal detention. Obiang

1394-778: A socialist party called the Popular Front in the enclave which served to oppose the interests of the Fernando Pó plantation owners. When the War broke out Francisco Franco ordered Nationalist forces based in the Canaries to ensure control over Equatorial Guinea. In September 1936, Nationalist forces backed by Falangists from Fernando Pó, similarly to what happened in Spain proper, took control of Río Muni, which under Governor-General Luiz Sanchez Guerra Saez and his deputy Porcel had backed

1476-654: A source and destination country for forced labour and sex trafficking. The report also noted that Equatorial Guinea "does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so." Pygmies probably once lived in the continental region that is now Equatorial Guinea, but are today found only in isolated pockets in southern Río Muni. Bantu migrations likely started around 2,000 BC from between south-east Nigeria and north-west Cameroon (the Grassfields). They must have settled continental Equatorial Guinea around 500 BC at

1558-544: A specific topic, and the language classroom, Aula de Lengua, designed for both teachers and learners of Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes also has a virtual presence in the 3D virtual world Second Life . On 13 December 2004, the Cervantes Institute formed its Centro de Formación de Profesores in its headquarters, located in Alcalá de Henares , where Cervantes was born. This institution was founded to encourage

1640-510: A time of great optimism over the future of the former African colonies, and groups that had been close to European rulers, like the Bubi, were not viewed positively. Independence from Spain was gained on 12 October 1968, at noon in the capital, Malabo. The new country became the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (the date is celebrated as the country's Independence Day ). Macías became president in

1722-410: Is located between Bioko and Annobón. The mainland region, Río Muni , is bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the south and east. It is the location of Bata , Equatorial Guinea's largest city, and Ciudad de la Paz , the country's planned future capital. Río Muni also includes several small offshore islands, such as Corisco , Elobey Grande , and Elobey Chico . The country is a member of

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1804-684: Is subdivided into three parts. A commitment and interest in planning the activities and direction of the Institute are managed by a high-profile membership. Centro Virtual Cervantes is an online service that was created in December 1997 by the Instituto Cervantes of Spain to contribute to the diffusion of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. It became one of the most important reference sites devoted to Spanish language and culture, having reached an average of over 100,000 visitors

1886-464: Is the 7th least democratic country in Africa . The Armed Forces of Equatorial Guinea consists of approximately 2,500 service members. The army has almost 1,400 soldiers, the police 400 paramilitary men, the navy 200 service members, and the air force about 120 members. There is also a gendarmerie , but the number of members is unknown. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index , Equatorial Guinea

1968-450: Is the 94th most peaceful country in the world. Equatorial Guinea is on the west coast of Central Africa . The country consists of a mainland territory, Río Muni , which is bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the east and south, and five small islands, Bioko , Corisco , Annobón , Elobey Chico (Small Elobey), and Elobey Grande (Great Elobey). Bioko, the site of the capital, Malabo , lies about 40 kilometers (25 mi) off

2050-465: Is very corrupt and 100 is extremely clean. Equatorial Guinea was the 174th lowest scoring nation out of a total of 180 countries. Freedom House, a pro-democracy and human rights NGO, described Obiang as one of the world's "most kleptocratic living autocrats", and complained about the US government welcoming his administration and buying oil from it. According to 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices , Equatorial Guinea

2132-725: The Caudillo ' s paternal hand in Cameroun and Gabon. They formed two bodies: the Movimiento Nacional de Liberación de la Guinea (MONALIGE), and the Idea Popular de Guinea Ecuatorial (IPGE). By the late 1960s, much of the African continent had been granted independence. Aware of this trend, the Spanish began to increase efforts to prepare the country for independence. The gross national product per capita in 1965

2214-554: The African Union , Francophonie , OPEC , and the CPLP . After becoming independent from Spain in 1968, Equatorial Guinea was ruled by Francisco Macías Nguema . He declared himself president for life in 1972, but was overthrown in a coup in 1979 by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo , who has served as the country's president since. Both presidents have been widely characterized as dictators by foreign observers. Since

2296-516: The Fang people in the 1920s, at the time that Liberia was beginning to cut back on recruitment. There were garrisons of the colonial guard throughout the enclave by 1926, and the whole colony was considered 'pacified' by 1929. The Spanish Civil War had a major impact on the colony. A group of 150 Spanish whites, including the Governor-General and Vice-Governor-General of Río Muni, created

2378-641: The USSR . Macias Nguema signed a preferential trade agreement and a shipping treaty with the Soviet Union. The Soviets also made loans to Equatorial Guinea. The shipping agreement gave the Soviets permission for a pilot fishery development project and also a naval base at Luba . In return, the USSR was to supply fish to Equatorial Guinea. China and Cuba also gave different forms of financial, military, and technical assistance to Equatorial Guinea, which got them

2460-567: The Windward coast continued. The Fernandinos became traders and middlemen between the natives and Europeans. A freed slave from the West Indies by way of Sierra Leone named William Pratt established the cocoa crop on Fernando Pó. Spain had not occupied the large area in the Bight of Biafra to which it had right by treaty , and the French had expanded their occupation at the expense of

2542-448: The 2019 Human Development Index , with less than half the population having access to clean drinking water and 7.9% of children dying before the age of five. Equatorial Guinea's nominal GDP per capita is $ 10,982 in 2021 according to OPEC. Since Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony, Spanish is the main official language. French and (as of 2010 ) Portuguese have also been made official, but they are not as widely used. Aside from

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2624-708: The 26 May elections on 25 June. Interior minister Clemente Engonga refused to authorise the protest on the grounds that it could "destabilize" the country and CPDS decided to go forward, claiming constitutional right. On the night of 24 June, the CPDS headquarters in Malabo were surrounded by heavily armed police officers to keep those inside from leaving and thus effectively blocking the protest. Several leading members of CPDS were detained in Malabo and others in Bata were kept from boarding several local flights to Malabo. In 2016, Obiang

2706-657: The British moved the headquarters of the Mixed Commission for the Suppression of Slave Traffic to Fernando Pó in 1827, before moving it back to Sierra Leone under an agreement with Spain in 1843. Spain's decision to abolish slavery in 1817 at British insistence damaged the colony's perceived value to the authorities and so leasing naval bases was an effective revenue earner from an otherwise unprofitable possession. An agreement by Spain to sell its African colony to

2788-487: The British was cancelled in 1841 due to metropolitan public opinion and opposition by Spanish Congress. In 1844, the British returned the island to Spanish control and the area became known as the "Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea". Due to epidemics, Spain did not invest much in the colony, and in 1862, an outbreak of yellow fever killed many of the whites that had settled on the island. Despite this, plantations continued to be established by private citizens through

2870-408: The Cervantes Institute, "Portal de las Tecnologías Lingüisticas en España", was launched by the Cervantes Institute on 10 January 2005. It is a free service of machine translation sponsored by Telefónica. Since its launch, demand has steadily increased monthly to 55%, and it has performed more than 582,000 free translations. The Cervantes Institute's purpose in creating this service was to facilitate

2952-529: The Christy Report which brought down the country's president Charles D. B. King in 1930. By the late nineteenth century, the Bubi were protected from the demands of the planters by Spanish Claretian missionaries, who were very influential in the colony and eventually organised the Bubi into little mission theocracies reminiscent of the famous Jesuit reductions in Paraguay . Catholic penetration

3034-530: The Count died of disease caught on Bioko and the fever-ridden crew mutinied. The crew landed on São Tomé instead where they were imprisoned by the Portuguese authorities after having lost over 80% of their men to sickness. As a result of this disaster, Spain was thereafter hesitant to invest heavily in its new possession. However, despite the setback Spaniards began to use the island as a base for slave trading on

3116-593: The Movimiento de Protesta Popular (People's Protest Movement), were arrested. They were detained on 13 May. They called for a peaceful protest at the Plaza de la Mujer square on 15 May. Coordinator Enrique Nsolo Nzo was also arrested and taken to Malabo Central Police Station. Nsolo Nzo was released later that day without charge. Shortly after the elections, opposition party Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) announced that they were going to protest peacefully against

3198-467: The Republican government. By November, the Popular Front and its supporters had been defeated and Equatorial Guinea secured for Franco. The commander in charge of the occupation, Juan Fontán Lobé, was appointed Governor-General by Franco and began to exert more Spanish control over the enclave interior. Río Muni officially had a little over 100,000 people in the 1930s; escape into Cameroun or Gabon

3280-433: The Spanish and Hispanic American culture and Spanish language. Article 3 of Law 7/1991, of March 21, created the Instituto Cervantes as a government agency. The law explains that the ultimate goals of the Institute are to promote the education, the study and the use of Spanish universally as a second language; to support the methods and activities that would help the process of Spanish language education, and to contribute to

3362-727: The United Kingdom's MI6 , the United States' CIA , and Spain as tacit supporters of the coup attempt. Nevertheless, the Amnesty International report released in June 2005 on the ensuing trial of those allegedly involved highlighted the prosecution's failure to produce conclusive evidence that a coup attempt had actually taken place. Simon Mann was released from prison on 3 November 2009 for humanitarian reasons. Since 2005, Military Professional Resources Inc. ,

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3444-444: The access of Spanish to those information technology contents developed in other languages, and so people who speak other languages can have access to contents that are only available in Spanish. This service permits translation of texts and text files, as well as web pages, from Spanish to Catalan, French, Galician, English or Portuguese and vice versa. The pairs of language percentages used are as follows: English–Spanish, 23.47% of

3526-469: The advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures throughout non-Spanish-speaking countries. The functions and services of the Cervantes Institute are: General language courses are offered at four different levels: elementary, intermediate, advanced and high advanced. The Cervantes Institute offers comprehensive Spanish language classes to: The administration of the Cervantes Institute

3608-642: The breakaway state fled to the island. The International Committee of the Red Cross began running relief flights out of Equatorial Guinea, but Macías quickly shut the flights down, refusing to allow them to fly diesel fuel for their trucks nor oxygen tanks for medical operations. The Biafran separatists were starved into submission without international backing. After the Public Prosecutor complained about "excesses and maltreatment" by government officials, Macías had 150 alleged coup-plotters executed in

3690-487: The cabinet, making laws by decree, dissolving the Chamber of Representatives, negotiating and ratifying treaties and serving as commander in chief of the armed forces. According to Human Rights Watch , the dictatorship of President Obiang used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people. Since August 1979, some 12 perceived unsuccessful coup attempts have occurred. According to

3772-531: The coast of Cameroon. Annobón Island is about 350 kilometers (220 mi) west-south-west of Cape Lopez in Gabon. Corisco and the two Elobey islands are in Corisco Bay, on the border of Río Muni and Gabon. Equatorial Guinea lies between latitudes 4°N and 2°S , and longitudes 5° and 12°E . Despite its name, no part of the country's territory lies on the equator—it is in the northern hemisphere, except for

3854-679: The coast, especially in the Muni River estuary. The Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests ecoregion covers most of Bioko and the adjacent portions of Cameroon and Nigeria on the African mainland, and the Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests ecoregion covers the highlands of Bioko and nearby Mount Cameroon . The São Tomé, Príncipe, and Annobón moist lowland forests ecoregion covers all of Annobón, as well as São Tomé and Príncipe. Instituto Cervantes This organization has branched out to 45 countries with 88 centres devoted to

3936-567: The colony of Spanish Guinea , its post-independence name refers to its location near both the Equator and in the African region of Guinea . As of 2024 , the country had a population of 1,795,834, over 85% of whom are members of the Fang people , the country's dominant ethnic group. The Bubi people , indigenous to Bioko , are the second largest group at approximately 6.5% of the population. Equatorial Guinea consists of two parts, an insular and

4018-475: The colony of Spanish Guinea . The economy was based on large cacao and coffee plantations and logging concessions and the workforce was mostly immigrant contract labour from Liberia , Nigeria , and Cameroun . Between 1914 and 1930, an estimated 10,000 Liberians went to Fernando Po under a labour treaty that was stopped altogether in 1930. With Liberian workers no longer available, planters of Fernando Po turned to Río Muni. Campaigns were mounted to subdue

4100-426: The colony, and in 1966, a UN Commission toured the country before recommending the same thing. In response, the Spanish declared that they would hold a constitutional convention on 27 October 1967 to negotiate a new constitution for an independent Equatorial Guinea. The conference was attended by 41 local delegates and 25 Spaniards. The Africans were principally divided between Fernandinos and Bubi on one side, who feared

4182-423: The colony, where they quickly began to join the new group. To the local mix were added Cubans, Filipinos, Jews and Spaniards of various colours, many of whom had been deported to Africa for political or other crimes, as well as some settlers backed by the government. By 1870, the prognosis of whites that lived on the island was much improved after recommendations that they live in the highlands, and by 1884 much of

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4264-661: The continental enclave of Río Muni, only 26,000 km out of the 300,000km stretching east to the Ubangi river which the Spaniards had initially claimed. The humiliation of the Franco-Spanish negotiations, combined with the disaster in Cuba led to the head of the Spanish negotiating team, Pedro Gover y Tovar , committing suicide on the voyage home on 21 October 1901. Iradier himself died in despair in 1911; decades later,

4346-526: The country and is organized from Spain mainly within the social-democratic Convergence for Social Democracy. Most of the media are under state control; the private television channels, those of the Asonga group, belong to the president's family. In their 2020 publishing, Transparency International awarded Equatorial Guinea a total score of 16 on their Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). CPI ranks countries by their perceived level of public corruptionwhere zero

4428-520: The country's only free and fair election to date . The Spanish (ruled by Franco ) had backed Macías in the election; much of his campaigning involved visiting rural areas of Río Muni and promising that they would have the houses and wives of the Spanish if they voted for him. He had won in the second round of voting. During the Nigerian Civil War , Fernando Pó was inhabited by many Biafra-supporting Ibo migrant workers and many refugees from

4510-647: The future teachers of Spanish through its 'Master of Education in Spanish as a Foreign Language', in collaboration with the International University Menéndez Pelayo. For teachers already involved in teaching, the Centre provides advanced activities that produce a deeper knowledge, focusing on research or discussion in the classroom, and improving the students’ skills in Spanish language for them to become responsive in any communicational situations. The Automatic Translator Service of

4592-511: The insular Annobón Province , which is about 155 km (96 mi) south of the equator. Equatorial Guinea has a tropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. From June to August, Río Muni is dry and Bioko wet; from December to February, the reverse occurs. In between it, there is a gradual transition. Rain or mist occurs daily on Annobón, where a cloudless day has never been registered. The temperature at Malabo, Bioko, ranges from 16 °C (61 °F) to 33 °C (91 °F), though on

4674-416: The islands around 1500 as the Portuguese quickly recognized the positives of the islands including volcanic soil and disease-resistant highlands. Despite natural advantages, initial Portuguese efforts in 1507 to establish a sugarcane plantation and town near what is now Concepción on Fernando Pó failed due to Bubi hostility and fever. The main island's rainy climate, extreme humidity and temperature swings took

4756-535: The latest. The earliest settlements on Bioko Island are dated to AD 530. The Annobón population, originally native to Angola , was introduced by the Portuguese via São Tomé island . The Portuguese explorer Fernando Pó , seeking a path to India, is credited as being the first European to see the island of Bioko, in 1472. He called it Formosa ("Beautiful"), but it quickly took on the name of its European discoverer. Fernando Pó and Annobón were colonized by Portugal in 1474. The first factories were established on

4838-418: The mid-1990s, Equatorial Guinea has become one of sub-Saharan Africa 's largest oil producers. It has subsequently become the richest country per capita in Africa, and its gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita ranks 43rd in the world; however, the wealth is distributed extremely unevenly, with few people benefiting from the oil riches. The country ranks 144th on

4920-468: The minimal administrative machinery and key plantations had moved to Basile hundreds of meters above sea level. Henry Morton Stanley had labeled Fernando Pó "a jewel which Spain did not polish" for refusing to enact such a policy. Despite the improved survival chances of Europeans living on the island, Mary Kingsley , who was staying on the island, still described Fernando Pó as "a more uncomfortable form of execution" for Spaniards appointed there. There

5002-681: The nearby mainland. Between 1778 and 1810, the territory of what became Equatorial Guinea was administered by the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata , based in Buenos Aires . Unwilling to invest heavily in the development of Fernando Pó, from 1827 to 1843, the Spanish leased a base at Malabo on Bioko to the United Kingdom which it had sought as part of its efforts to suppress the transatlantic slave trade . Without Spanish permission,

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5084-479: The new constitution was not retroactive and the two-term limit would only become applicable from 2016. The elections on 26 May 2013 combined the senate, lower house and mayoral contests in a single package. Like all previous elections, this was denounced by the opposition, and it too was won by Obiang's PDGE. During the electoral contest, the ruling party hosted internal elections, which were later scrapped. Clara Nsegue Eyi and Natalia Angue Edjodjomo, coordinators of

5166-614: The partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , it is the only country situated in Mainland Africa where Spanish is an official language (Spanish is also spoken in the African parts of Spain: the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla). It is also the most widely spoken language (considerably more than the other two official languages); according to the Instituto Cervantes , 87.7% of the population has

5248-438: The policies of Portugal and France, notably in dividing the population into a vast majority governed as 'natives' or non-citizens, and a very small minority (together with whites) admitted to civic status as emancipados , assimilation to the metropolitan culture being the only permissible means of advancement. This "provincial" phase saw the beginnings of nationalism , but chiefly among small groups who had taken refuge from

5330-419: The population and the country ranks low on the UN human development index. 7.9% of children die before the age of 5, and more than 50% of the population lacks access to clean drinking water . President Teodoro Obiang is widely suspected of using the country's oil wealth to enrich himself and his associates. In 2006, Forbes estimated his personal wealth at $ 600 million. In 2011, the government announced it

5412-461: The port of Cogo was renamed Puerto Iradier in his honour. Land regulations issued in 1904–1905 favoured Spaniards, and most of the later big planters arrived from Spain after that. An agreement was made with Liberia in 1914 to import cheap labor. Due to malpractice however, the Liberian government eventually ended the treaty after revelations about the state of Liberian workers on Fernando Pó in

5494-466: The second half of the 19th century. The plantations of Fernando Pó were mostly run by a black Creole elite , later known as Fernandinos . The British settled some 2,000 Sierra Leoneans and freed slaves there during their rule, and a trickle of immigration from West Africa and the West Indies continued after the British left. A number of freed Angolan slaves, Portuguese-African creoles and immigrants from Nigeria, and Liberia also began to be settled in

5576-913: The situation of the Spanish language worldwide.The Instituto has also run the Internet -based Centro Virtual Cervantes since 1997. In 2005, along with the Alliance française , the Società Dante Alighieri , the British Council , the Goethe-Institut , and the Instituto Camões , the Instituto Cervantes was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for outstanding achievements in communications and humanities. The Instituto Cervantes has developed its educational project on

5658-487: The southern Moka Plateau, normal high temperatures are only 21 °C (70 °F). In Río Muni, the average temperature is about 27 °C (81 °F). Annual rainfall varies from 1,930 mm (76 in) at Malabo to 10,920 mm (430 in) at Ureka , Bioko, but Río Muni is somewhat drier. Equatorial Guinea spans several ecoregions . Río Muni region lies within the Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests ecoregion except for patches of Central African mangroves on

5740-416: The teaching of Spanish as a foreign language and to provide useful resources to its members. Throughout the year, it organises the specific activities and programmes for the centre, with several different goals, which include teaching, providing the resources to the teachers to use in their education field, and developing specialised knowledge of the Spanish language for educational purposes. The centre supports

5822-468: The territory claimed by Spain. Madrid only partly backed the explorations of men like Manuel Iradier who had signed treaties in the interior as far as Gabon and Cameroon, leaving much of the land out of "effective occupation" as demanded by the terms of the 1885 Berlin Conference . Minimal government backing for mainland annexation came as a result of public opinion and a need for labour on Fernando Pó. The eventual treaty of Paris in 1900 left Spain with

5904-457: The total; Spanish–Catalan, 21.12%; Spanish–English, 13.64%; Portuguese–Spanish, 12.63%; Spanish–Portuguese, 10.39%; Catalan–Spanish, 6.48%; Spanish–French, 6.24%, and French–Spanish, 6.03%. Since 1998, the Instituto Cervantes has published the annual El español en el mundo highlighting the state of Spanish in the world, and current trends. This publication also includes the annual report Spanish: A Living Language, which quantitatively analyzes

5986-453: Was $ 466, which was the highest in black Africa; the Spanish constructed an international airport at Santa Isabel, a television station and increased the literacy rate to 89%. In 1967, the number of hospital beds per capita in Equatorial Guinea was higher than Spain itself, with 1637 beds in 16 hospitals. By the end of colonial rule, the number of Africans in higher education was in only the double digits. A decision of 9 August 1963, approved by

6068-616: Was also a trickle of immigration from the neighboring Portuguese islands, escaped slaves, and prospective planters. Although a few of the Fernandinos were Catholic and Spanish-speaking, about nine-tenths of them were Protestant and English-speaking on the eve of the First World War, and pidgin English was the lingua franca of the island. The Sierra Leoneans were particularly well placed as planters while labor recruitment on

6150-440: Was announced that there would be two vice-presidents in clear violation of the constitution that was just taking effect. In October 2012, during an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN , Obiang was asked whether he would step down at the end of the current term (2009–2016) since the new constitution limited the number of terms to two and he has been reelected at least 4 times. Obiang answered he refused to step aside because

6232-573: Was easy. Fernando Pó thus continued to suffer from labour shortages. The French only briefly permitted recruitment in Cameroun, and the main source of labour came to be Igbo smuggled in canoes from Calabar in Nigeria . This resolution led to Fernando Pó becoming one of Africa's most productive agricultural areas after the Second World War . Politically, post-war colonial history has three fairly distinct phases: up to 1959, when its status

6314-450: Was furthered by two small insurrections in 1898 and 1910 protesting conscription of forced labour for the plantations. The Bubi were disarmed in 1917, and left dependent on the missionaries. Serious labour shortages were temporarily solved by a massive influx of refugees from German Kamerun , along with thousands of white German soldiers who stayed on the island for several years. Between 1926 and 1959, Bioko and Río Muni were united as

6396-400: Was limited to a maximum of two seven-year terms and would be both the head of state and head of the government, therefore eliminating the prime minister. The new constitution also introduced the figure of a vice president and called for the creation of a 70-member senate with 55 senators elected by the people and the 15 remaining designated by the president. In the following cabinet reshuffle, it

6478-491: Was planning a new capital for the country, named Oyala . The city was renamed Ciudad de la Paz ("City of Peace") in 2017. As of February 2016 , Obiang was Africa's second-longest serving dictator after Cameroon 's Paul Biya . Equatorial Guinea was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council 2018–2019. On 7 March 2021, there were munition explosions at

6560-474: Was raised from "colonial" to "provincial", following the approach of the Portuguese Empire ; between 1960 and 1968, when Madrid attempted a partial decolonisation aimed at keeping the territory as part of the Spanish system; and from 1968 on, after the territory became an independent republic . The first phase consisted of little more than a continuation of previous policies; these closely resembled

6642-407: Was re-elected to serve an additional term in 2009 in an election the African Union deemed "in line with electoral law". Obiang re-appointed Prime Minister Ignacio Milam Tang in 2010. In November 2011, a new constitution was approved. The vote on the constitution was taken, though neither the text nor its content was revealed to the public before the vote. Under the new constitution, the president

6724-465: Was reelected for an additional seven-year term in an election that, according to Freedom House , was plagued by police violence, detentions and torture against opposition factions. Following the 2022 general elections , President Obiang's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea holds all of the 100 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and all of those in the Senate. The opposition is almost non-existent in

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