Equatorial Guinea's new capital remains empty

Equatorial Guinea's new political capital, Ciudad de la Paz, remains almost empty nearly eight months after it was officially declared the seat of government.

The city, formerly known as Oyala, sits in the equatorial forest on the country's mainland. It has wide avenues, two new hotels, a large hospital, a university and official buildings, but still has no residents, shops or schools.

In early January, a presidential decree made Ciudad de la Paz the new capital of the central African state of about two million people. Official institutions were given a one-year deadline to move from Malabo, the island capital since independence from Spain in 1968.

Cipriano Ela, a university lecturer, told AFP that there was still little to suggest the city was a capital. A resident of Oyala Poblado, a shanty town beside the new capital, said little had changed apart from an identification centre issuing ID cards and passports more quickly than elsewhere.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power for 47 years, launched the Ciudad de la Paz project in 2008. The state is financing the relocation with wealth from oil deposits discovered in the early 1990s, and infrastructure has been built by Chinese, South Korean and Italian companies.

Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said in January that the move represented a determination to consolidate sovereignty and identity and would create thousands of jobs.

The government has justified the relocation by pointing to Ciudad de la Paz's central mainland location and room for expansion. The plan is for the city to cover 32,000 hectares and house 65,000 people.

Authorities are trying to speed up the move. Last month, they signed an agreement with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa to develop electrification and housing.

A session of parliament was officially opened in July in the new legislature building in Ciudad de la Paz, but deputies later returned to Bata, the economic capital about 170 kilometres away.

The government has said the rapid growth of Malabo and Bata helped drive the capital move, as infrastructure, public services, jobs and offices in those cities drew people from rural areas and smaller towns.

For now, a lack of housing, public services and shops is slowing the transfer. Several employees of the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea told AFP they had left Malabo but were stuck in Bata. One party employee said there were no hospitals, schools or supermarkets and that workers only went to Ciudad de la Paz for small jobs before returning to Bata.

The government is relying on social housing for civil servants to encourage people to move. Until then, Ciudad de la Paz remains a capital largely on paper.