Earlier this year, residents of Annobón, a small island in Equatorial Guinea, began noticing signs of environmental deterioration, such as withered crops and cracks in their homes. They believed the damage was caused by years of dynamite explosions related to mining operations on the island, which is located in the Gulf of Guinea, about 220 miles west of Gabon.
In July, 16 locals sent a letter to officials in Malabo, the capital, raising concerns over environmental damage and demanding an end to dynamite use. The authorities responded swiftly by arresting the letter’s signatories and several sympathetic activists during raids. Communication on the island was cut off, with cellular and internet services suspended.
One detainee’s relative, speaking anonymously, described soldiers conducting house-to-house searches and taking the detainees to local police stations before flying them to Malabo without food or water. Three months later, only five elderly women have been released, while the remaining detainees face charges of rebellion and “abusive exercise of fundamental rights.” Eleven are held in Malabo’s infamous Black Beach prison, and 26 others, including opposition figure Francisco Ballovera Estrada, are detained in Mongomo, where they reportedly lack access to family and legal representation.
The flow of information from Annobón remains restricted, said Naro Omo-Osagie of Access Now, a nonprofit advocating for digital rights. Some updates have come through travelers arriving in Malabo by boat, but communication via phone or internet is still blocked.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea since a 1979 coup that ousted his uncle. Despite the country’s significant oil wealth, most citizens live in poverty, while Obiang and his family, including his vice-president son Teodoro Nguema, enjoy lavish lifestyles. Human rights advocates and the Equatoguinean diaspora claim that Annobón’s roughly 5,000 inhabitants have suffered particularly harsh abuses and exploitation.
Historically allocated to Spain in an 18th-century colony swap, Annobón was integrated into Equatorial Guinea upon its 1968 independence. The island’s strategic position in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea makes it significant to the nation’s territorial claims. Spanning just 6.5 square miles, Annobón is the smallest and most remote of the country’s eight provinces, located about 425 miles from Malabo and more closely connected to São Tomé and Príncipe, where a similar Portuguese creole, Fa d’Ambô, is spoken.
The island faces a lack of basic services such as consistent electricity and potable water, and residents often rely on a weekly ferry or infrequent ships for travel. For decades, the islanders have felt marginalized, with grievances dating back to a 1970s cholera outbreak that decimated a third of the population and 1980s revelations that toxic waste permits had been issued for the island.
In 1993, a youth-led uprising on Annobón was met with brutal suppression. More recently, in July 2022, two activists involved in the earlier protests declared independence for the island under Ambô Legadu, a separatist group based in Spain. Arbitrary arrests have increased since then, with the authorities linking activists to the group. Human rights lawyer Tutu Alicante, based in the U.S., stated that calls for secession should not be criminalized, noting the recent arrests violated freedom of expression.
Orlando Cartagena Lagar, a key figure in the independence movement, recently warned of an unprecedented ecological crisis on the island, driven by aggressive mineral extraction even near residential areas, which he called “a behavior of extermination.” He added that the islanders were excluded from decisions about the island’s development, resulting in a profound sense of abandonment.
