Once hailed as a potential model for African development, Guinea-Bissau is now one of the poorest countries in the world.
It has a massive foreign debt and an economy which relies heavily on foreign aid.
Compounding this, the country experienced a bitter civil war in the late 1990s in which thousands were killed, wounded and displaced.
Formerly Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau won independence from Portugal in 1974 after a long struggle spearheaded by the left-wing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). For the next six years post-independence leader Luis Cabral presided over a command economy.
AT-A-GLANCE
In 1980 he was overthrown by his army chief, Joao Vieira, who accused him of corruption and mismanagement. Mr Vieira led the country towards a market economy and a multi-party system, but was accused of crony capitalism, corruption and autocracy. In 1994 he was chosen as president in Guinea-Bissau's first free elections.
Four years later he was ousted after he dismissed his army chief, thereby triggering a crippling civil war. This eventually ended after foreign mediation led to a truce, policed by West African peacekeepers, and free elections in January 2000.
The victor in the poll, Kumba Yala, was ousted in a bloodless military coup in September 2003. The military chief who led the coup said the move was, in part, a response to the worsening economic and political situation.
Mr Vieira won the 2005 elections but his rule was brought to a bloody end in March 2009, when renegade soldiers entered his palace and shot him dead, reportedly to avenge the killing hours earlier of the army chief, a rival of the president.
The country's vital cashew nut crop provides a modest living for most of Guinea-Bissau's farmers and is the main source of foreign exchange.
President: Malam Bacai Sanha
Malam Bacai Sanha won a run-off in the July 2009 presidential elections, which were held following the assassination of president Joao Bernardo Vieira.
Vieira was assassinated by members of the army, apparently in revenge for a bomb attack that claimed the life of the army chief.
Sanha is an ex-interim head of state and a veteran of the country's independence war with long ties to the ruling party, the left-wing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).
He was interim president between June 1999 and May 2000, having been swept to power in the wake of a 1998 civil war that led to the departure of Joao Bernardo Vieira.
He held several ministerial posts and was speaker of the national assembly between 1994 and 1998.
Sanha made two unsuccessful bids for the presidency, in 2000 and in 2005.
He comes from the Beafada ethnic minority and was born in the southern Quinara region, later becoming an aide to Amilcar Cabral, the founder of the PAIGC and "father of independence".
Sanha is a Muslim, married and has one child.
The overthrow of Kumba Yala in 2003 put an end to an increasingly repressive media environment. Journalists had been detained, and the Portuguese broadcaster RTP Africa had been taken off the air over its coverage of Guinea-Bissau.
Broadcasters face many challenges, not least the lack of a reliable power supply. Private radio stations operate alongside the state-run broadcaster.
There are few private newspapers, but the lack of a vibrant private media scene may be due more to financial constraints than to government interference.
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