Ciudad de la Paz: Equatorial Guinea's new capital remains almost deserted

Wide, almost deserted avenues, brand-new official buildings and very few inhabitants: eight months after its designation as the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Ciudad de la Paz remains a largely uninhabited city.

This new city, formerly called Oyala, was officially elevated to the status of capital by a presidential decree of January 2, 2026. The text grants a period of one year to the presidency, institutions, government bodies and public companies to organize their installation.

On the ground, however, the transfer remains barely visible. "We don't see anything here yet that would suggest we are in a capital city," observes Cipriano Ela, a university lecturer, interviewed by AFP.

Infrastructure without a real urban life

Ciudad de la Paz already has several key infrastructure facilities: two hotels, a large hospital, a university, and various administrative buildings. However, these achievements are not enough to create a functional city.

Housing, shops, schools, and local services are still lacking. A resident of Oyala Poblado, an informal settlement nearby, observes that the change in status has had few concrete consequences: "Apart from the identification center, which issues identity cards and passports more quickly than others, nothing has changed."

Planned on a 32.000-hectare site to eventually house 65.000 inhabitants, the city was built with the involvement of Chinese, Korean, and Italian companies. Its urban development illustrates the limitations of a project approached primarily through infrastructure, without simultaneously developing a sufficient supply of housing, public services, and private businesses.

A transfer initiated by decree in January 2026

The project dates back to 2008 and was initiated under the presidency of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power for 47 years. It aims to move the country's political headquarters from Malabo, located on Bioko Island, to the mainland of Equatorial Guinea, near Cameroon and Gabon.

Malabo, a city of about 300.000 inhabitants, had been the capital since the country's independence from Spain in 1968. The new development should, according to the authorities, help to rebalance the territory and relieve congestion in Malabo as well as in Bata, the economic capital which has nearly 500.000 inhabitants.

The decree justifies this decision by the concentration of infrastructure, administrations, jobs and public services in these two urban areas, fueling their rapid growth and migrations from rural areas.

Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed "Teodorin," also emphasized the "strategic and central location of Ciudad de la Paz, designed to guarantee a more balanced, efficient, and coherent administration across the entire national territory." He further presented the transfer as a break "with the structures inherited from the colonial period, after 57 years of independence."

An institutional transfer that is still largely symbolic

The authorities are seeking to solidify the change of capital by holding certain official events in Ciudad de la Paz. The second parliamentary semester was thus opened on July 31, 2026, in the amphitheater of the new Chamber of Deputies building.

After this inaugural session, the parliamentarians departed for Bata, located approximately 170 kilometers away. The long-term relocation of government departments and their staff remains hampered by the lack of suitable reception facilities.

Several employees of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), the ruling party, say they have left Malabo but remain stranded in Bata. "No hospitals, no schools, no supermarkets. We only go down to Ciudad de la Paz to do some small jobs, then we go back up to Bata," one of them testified on condition of anonymity.

Housing and electrification at the heart of upcoming investments

To attract civil servants and their families, the government is now focusing on building social housing. On August 3, 2026, the Equatorial Guinean authorities also signed an agreement with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) to support electrification and housing projects.

These investments should help transform the administrative complex into a true city. The vice-president believes the transfer will lead to "the creation of thousands of jobs, thanks to the infrastructure the government is already building and will continue to develop to accommodate the new state institutions, public services, and the economic activity that will follow."

This trajectory is reminiscent of other capital city relocations that have occurred on the African continent, notably from Lagos to Abuja in Nigeria in 1991 or from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast in 1983. In both of these countries, the former capitals have retained a large part of their demographic and economic weight.

Ciudad de la Paz now has the status and some of the infrastructure of a capital city. But until housing, public services, businesses, and jobs follow, it will remain primarily an institutional center under construction, still lacking the everyday life that makes a city.