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| Official
Name : | REPUBLICA
DA GUINÉ-BISSAU (Republic of Guinea-Bissau) |
| Land
Area: | 36,120
sq kilometres / 13,940 sq miles. |
| Population: | 1,234,000
(est 1999). Density 34.1 persons per square kilometre. |
| Languages: | Portuguese
(official), Kriolu, Wolof, others. |
| Religions: |
Traditional 55%, Muslim 40%,Christian 5%, |
| Capital: | Bissau.
Population 110,000 |
| Currency: | CFA
franc, divided into 100 centimes. |
| Political: | In
1994, 20 years after independence from Portugal, the country's first multiparty
legislative and presidential elections were held. An army uprising that triggered
a bloody civil war in 1998 created hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.
A military junta ousted the president in May 1999. An interim government turned
over power in February 2000 when opposition leader Kumba Yala took office following
two rounds of transparent presidential elections. A September 2003 coup overthrew
the elected government of Yala; Army strongman Seabra served as interim president
from in September 2003. Artur Sanha has been in power since Sept 2003. |
| Geography: | Much
of the country is low-lying. The coast, dominated with numerous rivers, mangrove
swamps and forest, these slowly give way to inland savanna, and onto the hills
at the border with Guinea. The densely forested Bijagos Archipelago on the Atlantic
coast to the south-west is threatened with logging. |
