Zambia

Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the northeast, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the south, Namibia across the Caprivi Strip to the southwest and Angola to the west, covering 752,617 square kilometers, the world's 38th-largest country. Lusaka, in south-central Zambia, is the capital of a country whose population was estimated at 20.2 million in 2023, concentrated mostly around Lusaka and the Copperbelt Province to the north. Khoisan peoples originally inhabited the region, followed by Bantu expansion beginning around the thirteenth century; Britain gained control after the 1890 British Ultimatum, and the territory, known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911, achieved independence as the Republic of Zambia on 24 October 1964 under its first president, Kenneth Kaunda, who maintained one-party socialist rule until multiparty democracy was restored in 1991. Zambia is a unitary presidential republic, led today by President Hakainde Hichilema, Vice President Mutale Nalumango and Speaker Nelly Mutti; its natural resources include minerals, wildlife, forestry, freshwater and arable land, though nearly 48 percent of the population faces multidimensional poverty.