Rio Muni, or more recently Mbini, is part of Equatorial Guinea in southwest Africa. The Riu Muni territory is the part of the state of Equatorial Guinea that is located on mainland Africa, while the country's capital is on the island of Bioko, around 250 kilometers away.
The Riu Muni part, which is around thirteen times larger in area, is located in the Lower Guinea region and has around 1.3 million inhabitants.
Mbini borders Gabon to the south and east, Cameroon to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
The Riu Muni area is located just north of the equator, so it has a tropical climate all year round.
The country's surface is predominantly mountainous with only a small 15 kilometer wide coastal strip. There are significant reserves of oil and natural gas off the Riu Muni land area, which are to be mined in the next few years.
The largest and most important city in the Mbini Territory is Bata with around 600,000 inhabitants. Bata is the economic and cultural center on the mainland of the state of Equatorial Guinea.
In August 2017 I traveled to the city of Bata in Riu Muni for a rather short stay. On the way from Douala in Cameroon, I had to change trains in Bata during a six-hour layover to then get to the island of Bioko.
Of course, I used this short time to quickly visit the capital of the mainland and take some photos. The city of Bata was generally very clean and much more pleasant than previously thought.
I carried out both of my flights with the local airline “CEIBA-International”, which is on the “black list” in almost every country worldwide. Despite a somewhat uneasy feeling at the beginning and the super old plane, everything went smoothly in the end and I was somehow happy to have survived the flights without any major complications.
Deutsch
No Comments