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Equatorial Guinea Profile
With a population of 1.675 million (2022), the tiny country of Equatorial Guinea, together with its five occupied islands, gained independence from Spain in 1968. True to form, its first president, Francisco Macias Nguema, created a one party state within two years and started on a reign of terror that led to the death or exile of around one third of the country's then population. As with so many other newly emerging African countries, foreign investment dried up, Equatorial Guinea's skilled population fled, and the economy effectively collapsed. In 1979 there was a coup d'etat deposing Nguema and installing Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo as president over a notionally democratic state, but in essence one controlled by presidential decree. Mbasogo is currently the second longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world.
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