Internet country code:
.gq
Internet hosts:
9 (2010) country comparison to the world: 221
Internet users:
14,400 (2009) country comparison to the world: 199
Transportation ::Equatorial Guinea
Airports:
7 (2010) country comparison to the world: 166
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 6
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 2 (2010)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 1
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2010)
Pipelines:
gas 38 km (2009)
Roadways:
total: 2,880 km (2000) country comparison to the world: 167
Merchant marine:
total: 4 country comparison to the world: 131 by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 1, petroleum tanker 2
foreign-owned: 1 (Norway 1) (2010)
Ports and terminals:
Bata, Luba, Malabo (2010)
Military ::Equatorial Guinea
Military branches:
National Guard (Guardia Nacional de Guinea Ecuatoria, GNGE (Army), with Coast Guard (Navy) and Air Wing) (2010)
Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for selective compulsory military service; service obligation 2 years; women hold only administrative positions in the Coast Guard (2011)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16–49: 146,241
females age 16–49: 146,138 (2010 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16–49: 109,311
females age 16–49: 111,543 (2010 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 7,186
female: 6,920 (2010 est.)
Military expenditures:
0.1% of GDP (2009) country comparison to the world: 173
Transnational Issues ::Equatorial Guinea
Disputes - international:
in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement of Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf of Guinea, but a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River and imprecisely defined maritime coordinates in the ICJ decision delay final delimitation; UN urges Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane and lesser islands and to create a maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Equatorial Guinea is primarily a destination country for children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and possibly for the purpose of sexual exploitation; children have been trafficked from nearby countries for domestic servitude, market labor, ambulant vending, and possibly sexual exploitation; women may also be trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from Cameroon, Benin, other neighboring countries, and China for sexual exploitation
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Equatorial Guinea is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to eliminate trafficking, particularly in the areas of prosecuting and convicting trafficking offenders and failing to formalize mechanisms to provide assistance to victims; although the government made some effort to enforce laws against child labor exploitation, it failed to report any trafficking prosecutions or convictions in 2007; the government continued to lack shelters or formal procedures for providing care to victims (2008)
page last updated on January 24, 2011
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@Eritrea (Africa)
Introduction ::Eritrea
Background:
The UN awarded Eritrea to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN auspices in December 2000. Eritrea hosted a UN peacekeeping operation that monitored a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) on the border with Ethiopia. Eritrea's denial of fuel to the mission caused the UN to withdraw the mission and terminate its mandate 31 July 2008. An international commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002. However, both parties have been unable to reach agreement on implementing the decision. On 30 November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission remotely demarcated the border by coordinates and dissolved itself, leaving Ethiopia still occupying several tracts of disputed territory, including the town of Badme. Eritrea accepted the EEBC's "virtual demarcation" decision and called on Ethiopia to remove its troops from the TSZ that it states is Eritrean territory. Ethiopia has not accepted the virtual demarcation decision. In 2009 the UN imposed sanctions on Eritrea after accusing it of backing anti-Ethiopian Islamist insurgents in Somalia.
Geography ::Eritrea
Location:
Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan
Geographic coordinates:
15 00 N, 39 00 E
Map references:
Africa
Area:
total: 117,600 sq km country comparison to the world: 100 land: 101,000 sq km
water: 16,600 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Pennsylvania
Land boundaries:
total: 1,626 km
border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km
Coastline:
2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea 1,083 km)
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate:
hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands
Terrain:
dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: near Kulul within the Danakil Depression −75 m
highest point: Soira 3,018 m
Natural resources: