Teodoro Obiang

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (born 5 June 1942) is an Equatoguinean politician, former military officer, and dictator who has led Equatorial Guinea since 1979, including as its second president since 1982. As of 2026, he is the second-longest-consecutively-serving current non-royal national leader in the world, second to Paul Biya of Cameroon.

After graduating from military school in Zaragoza, Spain, Obiang held multiple positions under the presidency of his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, including director of the Black Beach prison notorious for its human rights violations. He ousted Macías in a military coup in 1979 and took control of the country as president and chairman of the Supreme Military Council. The country nominally returned to civilian rule in 1982, and in 1987 Obiang founded the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), which was the country's sole legal party until 1992. He has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s. Obiang was Chairperson of the African Union from 2011 to 2012.

Obiang is widely regarded as an autocratic leader who leads a regime of widespread corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations, and nepotism. Under his rule, Equatorial Guinea continues to have one of the worst human rights records in the world. Equatorial Guinea is a dominant-party state, in which Obiang's PDGE holds virtually all governing power and has held all or almost all seats in the legislature since its creation. The constitution gives Obiang sweeping powers, including the right to rule by decree, effectively making his government a corrupt dictatorship and banana republic. He has also placed family members in key government positions.