Eswatini

Eswatini, formerly known until 2018 as Swaziland and officially the Kingdom of Eswatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa bordered by South Africa on three sides and Mozambique to the east, spanning roughly 200 kilometers north to south and 130 kilometers east to west, the second-smallest country on the African mainland. Mbabane serves as the executive capital and Lobamba as the legislative and royal capital, with terrain rising from hot, dry lowlands in the east to cool, mountainous highlands in the west. The population was estimated at about 1.2 million in 2023, composed primarily of ethnic Swazis speaking Swazi and English, the two official languages, and predominantly Christian. Eswatini gained independence from Britain on 6 September 1968 and functions today as one of the world's last absolute monarchies, ruled by King Mswati III, who has reigned since 1986 alongside Queen Mother Ntfombi and a prime minister heading a bicameral Parliament of a Senate and House of Assembly; the country adopted its current name, meaning land of the Swazis in the indigenous language, in April 2018. Eswatini is a developing, lower-middle-income economy closely integrated into the regional Southern African trade network, with South Africa as its principal trading partner.