Sao Tome and Principe

Sao Tome and Principe, officially the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa, comprising two main archipelagos centered on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, roughly 121 to 135 nautical miles from Gabon's northwestern shore. Sao Tome, the country's capital and largest city, gives its name to the larger island. Its 2023 population of approximately 220,372 makes it the second-smallest and second-least-populous African sovereign state, after Seychelles. Portuguese explorers Joao de Santarem and Pedro Escobar discovered the previously uninhabited islands on 21 December 1470, and the territory became a major hub of the Atlantic slave trade before developing plantation economies built on sugar, coffee and cocoa. Sao Tome and Principe gained independence from Portugal on 12 July 1975, initially as a communist single-party state, transitioning to a multiparty system in 1990. The country is a semi-presidential republic, led by President Carlos Vila Nova and Prime Minister Americo Ramos; predominantly Christian and strongly shaped by Portuguese cultural and linguistic heritage, it is classified as a developing economy with a medium Human Development Index ranking, 141st globally as of 2023.