Nguema was elected first president of Equatorial Guinea, and independence was recognised on 12 October 1968. In July 1970, Nguema created a single-party state. Nguema’s reign of terror led to the death or exile of up to 1/3 of the country's population. Out of a population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 had been killed. The economy collapsed, and skilled citizens and foreigners left. Teodoro Obiang deposed Francisco Macías Nguema on 3 August 1979, in a bloody coup d'état.
In 2011 the government announced it was planning a new capital in the country, named Djibloho
