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Friday 29th March
Equatorial Guinea Facts
The highest point in Equatorial Guinea is Pico Basile (3,008 m) on the island of Bioko.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the smallest countries in Africa.

Pygmy people were the first of Equatorial Guinea's ethnic groups to inhabit the mainland.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the island of Bioko (1471).

Bioko was named after Fernando Po, the Portuguese explorer. The named changed in the 1970s.

The Portuguese took Angolans to the island of Annoban via their colony on Sao Tome.

Portugal ceded Fernando Po to Spain in 1778.

In the 1840s the Spanish colonized the mainland (Rio Muni).

Britain leased Fernando Po for a period during the nineteenth century. The island was used as a base to fight against the slave trade.

European countries traded in slaves until legislation prohibited the slave trade. Acts of Parliament were passed in European countries at different times.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the Spanish established coffee and cocoa plantations on Fernando Po.

In 1904 Fernando Po and Rio Muni united to form the Western African Territories. Later the name was changed to Spanish Guinea.

Spanish Guinea achieved independence in 1968 as the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

Following a coup in 1979 Obiang Nguema became President of Equatorial Guinea.

In the 1990s large deposits of gas and oil were discovered off the island of Bioko.

In 2004 a number of mercenaries from South Africa, Armenia and Germany were arrested in Equatorial Guinea over an alleged coup attempt.

British mercenary Simon Mann was sentenced to thirty-four years imprisonment for participating in the 2004 alleged coup attempt; he was pardoned and released in November 2009.

In July 2005 fifty-five 55 passengers were killed when an aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Malabo,

In October 2006 President Obiang announced that Equatorial Guinea planned to double its revenue share from oil production contracts.

Equatorial Guinea co-hosted the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 and played host again in 2015.

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