Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea / Central African country is one of the smallest countries on the continent. Cameroon borders it to the north, Gabon to the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. Is the only African country whose official language is Spanish

Part of it is located on the African mainland, and another section, consisting of several islands, opposite the Cameroonian beach. The wild section, called Rio Moni, is located in the middle of the African continent, on the Atlantic Ocean, and is bordered by Cameroon in the north, Gabon in the east and south

The surface in the main part of the country is flat and covered with forests. The Ambien River irrigates 60% of the land area. As for the island of Bioko, it is volcanic in origin and mountainous and covered with trees and has a rocky shore. Several waterways and there are some lakes in the mountains. Although 46% of the land is still covered with forests according to the 1993 estimates, the problem of desertification appears with increasing agricultural production despite the increase in oil revenues

Discover the Portuguese sailor, Fernando Poe, on the island, which today bears his name, and called it "Formosa", that is, beautiful. The island was inhabited by the Bobe tribes, who came from within the continent, and which had a close relationship with the Douala tribes, in Cameroon. Today, Bobby is a minority among the island's population, due to their increasing emigration, since the late nineteenth century

Around 1493, Don Juan II of Portugal proclaimed himself the title of Master of Guinea, in 1494, the Portuguese occupied the remaining islands and turned into centers of slave trade. The island of Fernandoro of Portuguese possessions continued until 1778, when Portugal abandoned it in favor of Spain, in exchange for Spain obtaining the island of Saint Catherine and the colony of Sacramento, which had been the subject of a dispute between Lisbon and Madrid

Meanwhile, Portugal recognized the right of Spain to trade with residents of the Gulf of Guinea beaches. Five years after the Spanish occupied the island of Fernando, only 22 of the 150 Spaniards remained on the island, forming the Spanish naval expedition that landed on the island. In the nineteenth century, the English, the Queen of the Island, disputed and a British campaign arrived in 1827, in which she stayed, on the pretext of forming a court condemning those who violated the laws of slave trade

However, England was forced to withdraw from it in 1832, in front of Madrid's severe and repeated protests. Then England offered Spain to buy the island, but Spain rejected the offer, and launched a maritime campaign, in 1843, as a result of which it occupied, in addition to the island of Fernandobo, the islands of Codesco, Elope, and Anubon. The first administrative work resorted to by the Spanish authorities was the expulsion of the Protestant missionaries, who had come to the island as the British entered it

In 1885, the Berlin Conference recognized a Spanish beach, between Riocombo and Rio Moni, which today constitutes the northern and southern borders of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, as recognized by the interior regions. However, the Treaty of Paris, in 1900, between France and Spain, gave France vast areas, in Rio Moni, that it annexed to its colonies in Gabon

In 1959, Madrid decided to grant its colonies, in black Africa, the Spanish provincial system, which was in place for other colonies outside Africa. In 1963, during the first conference of the Organization of African Unity, in Addis Ababa, Spanish President Franco suddenly decided to gradually abolish Spanish colonialism and grant autonomy to the two provinces, Fernandobo and Rio Moni, which merged into one administrative entity

In this way, he was brought down in the hands of the political organizations, which were moving abroad, and demanding independence, and on top of it was: the popular idea of ​​Equatorial Guinea, which was based in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, as its center, and the National Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea, which was led by Atanazio Ndong from the Fang , The largest ethnic group in Equatorial Guinea, which has chosen the city of Algeria as the center of its work

Following a disagreement between the two organizations, the National Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea chose to accept the establishment of new institutions, which were embodied in the formation of an African government in 1994, headed by Bonifacio Ondo Ydom, the leader of an organization close to Spain, the National Union of Equatorial Guinea

 On 7 March 2004, 64 mercenaries suspected of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea were arrested at the airport in the capital of Zimbabwe, after whom Margaret Thatcher’s son in South Africa was arrested, who financed the operation, aimed at trying to topple President Teodoro Obiang Ngima and replace him with dissidents Severo Muto Nsa, who had been repeatedly convicted To carry out coup attempts and is currently imprisoned in Madrid on charges of smuggling weapons to Malabo