People who wrote protest letter to Equatorial Guinea authorities latest to feel wrath of draconian regime

Earlier this year, residents of the small island of Annobón began noticing withering plants on their farmland and large cracks in their houses.

They attributed the damage to years of dynamite explosions linked to mining operations on the island, a province of Equatorial Guinea that lies in the Gulf of Guinea about 220 miles west of Gabon off the west coast of Africa.