Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea has suddenly been brought into the world's spotlight as a result of a supposed coup attempt there by a group of former members of the South African special forces. The picture that is emerging is not a pretty sight. This country is a caricature of Africa, a microcosm of all that is bad about the continent. Because of the discoveries of bigger and bigger oil reserves every year in its waters, Equatorial Guinea has one of the highest economic growth rates in the world - nearly...read more

On the steamy shores of West Africa, oil seldom brings good tidings. Equatorial Guinea, the nugget-sized nation at the heart of last week's bungled apparent coup attempt, is no exception. A despotic leader, his playboy-rapper son, scheming relatives and thousands of American oil men are the characters of a twisted plot that reads like Dallas set in equatorial Africa. And although attention has focused on 67 alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe, a far greater intrigue swirls around the dic...read more

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Equatorial Guinea have launched a scheme to train enough teachers so that every child in the African country can finish primary school by 2010. Over the next four years the UNDP and Equatorial Guinea have promised to spend $5.2 million training 2,000 teachers, 45 school inspectors and 36 education advisers as part of a scheme dubbed “Education for All,” the agency said this week.

UNDP and the Government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea will invest US$5.2 million over the next four years to train 2,000 teachers, 36 education advisors, and 45 school inspectors to implement an "Education for All" project. The aim is to have all children in the central African country attend and complete primary school before 2010, five years ahead of the deadline for achieving the second Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. This will help the population of one million...read more

Independent journalist Rodrigo Angue Nguema was released this week after spending eight days in police custody in Equatorial Guinea's capital, Malabo. Angue Nguema works as a correspondent for the wire service Agence France-Presse (AFP), as well as several other foreign news organisations, and is one of the only independent journalists in the country.

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