Equatorial Guinea Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Equatorial Guinea-Cameroon: 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 delayed final delimitation

Equatorial Guinea-Gabon: dispute over Mbane Island and lesser islands in the Corisco Bay submitted to ICJ in 2016

Trafficking in persons

tier rating:

Tier 3 — Equatorial Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Equatorial Guinea was downgraded to Tier 3; officials took some steps such as training law enforcement officials on trafficking; however, the government did not prosecute any traffickers and has never convicted a trafficker under its 2004 anti-trafficking law; officials did not identify any victims for the second consecutive year nor screen vulnerable populations; the anti-trafficking law did not criminalize all forms of trafficking; allegations of senior government officials’ complicity in trafficking crimes continued to hinder efforts to combat trafficking (2023)

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Equatorial Guinea and Equatoguineans abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are subjected to forced domestic service and sex trafficking in cities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sector; local and foreign women are exploited in commercial sex domestically, while some Equatoguineans may face sex trafficking in Spain; some business owners recruit women from Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, other African countries, and Latin America for work in Equatorial Guinea and exploit them in forced labor and sex trafficking; some children from rural areas have been exploited in forced labor; traffickers fraudulently recruit Equatoguinean and foreign children to attend school or learn a trade but exploit them in domestic servitude and other forced labor; observers report LGBTQI+ youth are often left homeless and stigmatized by family and society, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking (2023)