Equatorial Guinea profile Overview Facts Leaders Media Timeline Map of Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea is a small country off West Africa which has recently struck oil and which is now being cited as a textbook case of the resource curse - or the paradox of plenty. Since the mid 1990s the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Saharas biggest oil producers and in 2004 was said to have the worlds fastest-growing economy. However, few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of the UN human development index. The UN says that less than half the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20 percent of children die before reaching five. Fish vendor in Bata, Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea is oil rich, but its people are poor The country has exasperated a variety of rights organisations who have described the two post-independence leaders as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa. Continue reading the main story At a glance Politics: President Obiang seized power in 1979; rights groups have condemned his rule as one Africas most brutal; he faces a government in exile and a separatist movement Economy: Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africas third biggest oil producer. Oil earnings are allegedly stolen by the ruling elite International: Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are in dispute over islands in potentially oil-rich off-shore waters Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring Francisco Macias Nguemas reign of terror - from independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979 - prompted a third of the population to flee. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the Bubi ethnic minority, he ordered the death of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economys collapse. His successor - Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo - took over in a coup and has shown little tolerance for opposition during the three decades of his rule. While the country is nominally a multiparty democracy, elections have generally been considered a sham. According to Human Rights Watch, the dictatorship under President Obiang has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the countrys people. The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 12 of its list of most corrupt states. Resisting calls for more transparency, President Obiang has for long held that oil revenues are a state secret. In 2008 the country became a candidate of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues - but failed to qualify by an April 2010 deadline. Investigations A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiangs family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess. Observers say the US finds it hard to criticise a country which is seen as an ally in a volatile, oil-rich region. In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed President Obiang as a good friend despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record by her own department. More recently President Barack Obama posed for an official photograph with President Obiang at a New York reception. The advocacy group Global Witness has been lobbying the United States to act against the President Obiangs son Teodor, a government minister. It says there is credible evidence that he spent millions buying a Malibu mansion and private jet using corruptly acquired funds - grounds for denying him a visa. Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow President Obiang.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 08:00:35 +0000
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