Equatorial Guinea country profile

Equatorial Guinea is a small country on the west coast of Africa which struck oil in 1995, and which is now being cited as a textbook case of the resource curse – or the paradox of plenty.

It is made up of a mainland territory called Rio Muni, and five islands including Bioko, where the capital Malabo is located.

Since the mid 1990s. the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Sahara’s biggest oil producers, but a large proportion of the population still lives in poverty.

Rights organisations have described the two post-independence leaders as among the worst abusers in Africa.

First President Francisco Macias Nguema’s reign of terror, from independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979, prompted a third of the population to flee.

By BBC