The minimum you must know

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a small coastal central African country close to the equator that was colonized by Spain until 1968, and that's mostly home to indigenous groups. The country is near Nigeria and bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the south.

When Equatorial Guinea gained independence from Spain, Francisco Macías Nguema became president until he overthrown in a coup in 1979 by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who served as the country's President since. The country has developed substantially economically through oil sales, and currently has around a third of the GDP per capita of the United States of America.

The government has a reputation for ruling with an iron hand. But that may be necessary in a challenging region, where, for instance, hundreds of thousands of people fled neighboring Cameroon for Nigeria. Equatorial Guinea has a reputation for being socially free (with similar interactive rules to Amsterdam's red light district).

Equatorial Guinea seeks a lifting of sanctions on Cuba. The Vice President of the country gave a compassionate speech at the United Nations calling for peace globally.

Equatorial Guinea is at peace with countries regionally and globally.