Botswana

Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa bordered by Zimbabwe to the northeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and South Africa to the south and southeast, covering 581,730 square kilometers of largely flat terrain, about 70 percent of it part of the Kalahari Desert. Gaborone is its capital and largest city, and its population of slightly over 2.4 million, spread across a land area comparable to France, makes Botswana one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world; the Batswana people make up nearly 80 percent of the population, with the Kalanga the largest minority at 11 percent. Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana became independent on 30 September 1966 and has since maintained the longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa, governed as a parliamentary republic in which the president serves as both head of state and head of government; it is regarded as the least corrupt country in mainland Africa by recent indices. Botswana's economy centers on tourism and mining, and the country produces more diamonds than any other in the world; it ranks second in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa, on the Human Development Index.