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In recent years the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers.

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Large oil and gas deposits were discovered off Bioko in the mid-1990s and their exploitation has driven spectacular growth. In 2004 Equatorial Guinea had the world’s dating ethnic site economy.

AT-A-GLANCE Politics: President Obiang seized power in 1979; rights groups have condemned his rule as one Africa’s most brutal; he faces a “government in exile” and a separatist movement Economy: Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africa’s third biggest oil producer International: Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are in dispute over islands in potentially oil-rich off-shore waters Timeline

But few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of a UN human development index. The government has started a scheme to divert a share of oil revenues into social projects.

The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 10 of its list of corrupt states. Despite calls for more transparency in the sector, President Obiang has said oil revenues are a state secret.

In 1996 Equatorial Guinea’s first multi-party presidential election was held amid reports of widespread fraud and ethnic dating, returning President Obiang Nguema with 99% of the vote.

His government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and of suppressing political opposition. A government-in-exile has been formed by opposition leaders living in exile in Spain; President Obiang accused its leader of sponsoring a failed coup in 2004.

Equatorial Guinea’s territory includes the island of Bioko, off the Cameroonian coast, which hosts the capital, Malabo.

In the 1970s it became notorious when the widespread human rights abuses of President Francisco Nguema caused a third of the population to flee.

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