|- | align="center" colspan=Ii | National motto: Khotso, Pula, Nala; Peace, Rain, Prosperity |- | align=center colspan=Deuce style="background: #ffffff;" | image:LocationLesotho.png |- | Languages | Sesotho (southern Sotho), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa |- | Capital and largest city | Maseru |- | '''Capital's coordinates | |- | Monarch | Hectometer A King of Lesotho, Letsie III |- | Prime Minister | Pakalitha Mosisili |- | Area
 - Total
 - % water | Ranked 137th
30,355 km²
Negligible |- | Population
 - Total (2004)
 - Density | Ranked 143rd
1,861,959
61.3/km² |- | GDP (PPP)
 - Total (Year)
 - GDP/head | Ranked 147th
$5.106 billion
$2,700 |- | Currency | Loti (L) |- | Time zone | UTC +2 |- | Establishment | 1824 |- | National anthem' | Lesotho Fatse La Bontat'the Rona |- | Internet TLD | .ls |- | Calling Code | 266 |} History
Independent article: History of Lesotho''

Fallowing numerous years as a British associated state, Lesotho gained fully independence from either a United Kingdom on October 4, 1966. Around January 1970 a regnant Basotho National Party (BNP) appeared set to lose a foremost post-independence general elections after Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan annulled the election. He refused to cede power to the Basotho Congress Party (BCP) and imprisoned its leadership.

A BNP ruled by decree until January 1986 when a military coup forced them away from professional. A Military Council that inherit power granted executive powers to King Moshoeshoe II, who was until so the ceremonial monarch. Within 1987, however, a King was forced into exile when a break by using the army. His boy wwhen installed as King Letsie III.

A chairwoman of the military junta, Major General Justin Metsing Lekhanya, was ousted in 1991 and then replaced by Major General Elias Phisoana Ramaema, who handed all over power to the democratically elective government of the BCP inside 1993. Moshoeshoe II returned from either exile within 1992 as an ordinary citizen. Fallowing a go to to popular government, King Letsie III tried unsuccessfully to persuade a BCP government to reinstate his father (Moshoeshoe II) when head of state. Inside August 1994, Letsie III staged a coup which was backed per military machine & deposed a BCP government. A freshly government did non receive fully international recognition. Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) engaged in negotiations aimed at a reinstatement of the BCP government. One of a conditions put send on per King for the go to of the BCP government wwhen that his father should become re-installed as head of state. Fallowing drawn-out negotiations, a BCP government was reinstated & a King abdicated within favor his father in 1995, but Moshoeshoe II died witharound the car accident in 1996 and was again succeeded by his boy, Letsie III. A opinion BCP split all over leadership disputes inside 1997.

Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle formed a newly person, a Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), and was followed by the majority of Parliamentarian, which enabled him to form the newly government. A LCD won a general elections within 1998 under a leadership of Pakalitha Mosisili, who got succeeded Mokhehle when person leader. Despite a elections existence pronounced loose & fair by local & international observers & a subsequent favorite commission appointed by SADC, the opposition political parties rejected the resolutions.

Opposition protests withinside a united states intensified, culminating in the peaceful demonstration outside the royal palace in August 1998. Accurate details of what followed come tremendously disputed, however inside September an SADC project inflict operate orders of indecipherable provenience entered a capital city. whenever a Botswanan troops were welcomed, tensions sustaining whiten Afrikaaner South African troops were high, & sporadic riot intensified when a Afrikaaners ran higher a South African flag at the royal palace. Many units of Lesotho's armed forces mutinied. Per instance the SADC forces withdrew around Can of 1999, tremendously of Maseru store ruins, & a southern provincial capitol towns of Mafeteng & Mohales Hoek got seen a loss of above a third of their commercial real-estate.

An Interim Political Authority (IPA), charged by having reviewing a electoral structure inside the united states, was created in December 1998. the IPA devised a proportional electoral rules to assure that there exist as opposition in the National Assembly. the freshly formulas retained a existent Fourscore elective Assembly seats, however added Forty seats to exist as filled in a proportional basis. Elections were held under this newly patterns inside May 2002, and a LCD won once more, gaining 54% of the vote. foremost, still, opposition political parties won important many seats, & despite a select few irregularities & threats of violence from either Major General Lekhanya, Lesotho had its first peaceful election. Nine opposition parties nowadays hang on to tons Xl of a proportional seats, by owning a BNP getting the big part (Twenty-one). A LCD has 79 of the Fourscore constituency-depending seats. Although its elective members participate in the National Assembly, the BNP has launched many legal challenges to the elections, including a recount; none has been successful.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of Lesotho

A Lesotho Government occurs as constitutional monarchy. A Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, is head of government and has executive authority. the King serves a largely ceremonial work; he there are no protracted possesses any executive authority & is proscribed from either actively participating within political initiatives.

a Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) controls a majority in a National Assembly (a moo home of parliament), by owning the Basotho National Person (BNP), Lesotho Peoples Congress, & the National Independent Party among the Nine opposition parties delineated. A upper home of parliament, known as a Senate, is composed of Xxii primary chiefs whose membership is hereditary, & Eleven appointees of the King, acting on the advice of the prime minister. A constitution will bring for an independent judicature. A judiciary is processed higher of a Court of Appeal, the Supreme court, Jurist's Courts, & traditional courts that survive predominately around rural areas. Near one of a Justices on the Court of Appeal come South African jurists. No test by jury; like, judges produce opinion alone, or even, in the out break of criminal lawsuits, sustaining deuce more judges when observers. A constitution also protects basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech, association, & a click; freedom of peaceful assembly; and freedom of religion.

Districts
Independent Article: Districts of Lesotho

For administrative purposes, Lesotho is divided into Decade districts, each headed by the zone secretary.

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Lesotho

A virtually all notable geographic fact just about Lesotho, apart from either its status as an enclave, is that these are a merely independent state inside the globe that lies totally above 1,000 metres in elevation. Its moo point is 1,400 m, & terminated 80% of the united states lies above 1,800 m.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Lesotho

Lesotho's economy is according to exportation of water and electricity sold to South Africa, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, & to a few extent a earnings of manual laborer listed within South Africa. Lesotho likewise exports diamonds, wool, and mohair. Lesotho is geographically surrounded by South Africa & economically integrated by using it too. A majority of family survive around farming or even migratory labor, primarily mineworker in South Africa for Three to 9 months. A american lowlands form a independent farming zone. All but 50% of a people earns a few income across crop cultivation or even beast husbandry, using above half the united states's income from either a farming sector.

Water is Lesotho's only important natural resources. These are existence exploited through the Thirty-season, multi-billion-dollar Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), which was initiated in 1986. A LHWP is designed to capture, store, & transport a body of water from either a Orange River system and send it to South Africa's Absolutely free! State & greater Johannesburg locality, which features the big concentration of South African industry, people, & agriculture. Completion of a foremost phase of the plan has mass produced Lesotho near entirely self-self-sufficing in the production of electricity & generated about $24 million annually from either the low of electricity & a body of water to South Africa. a World Bank, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank, & numerous more bilateral donors financed the task. Lesotho has taken benefit of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to become a big exporter of garments to the U.S. from either sub-Saharan Africa. Exportation totaled across $320 million inside 2002. Employment reached across 50,000, marking a 1st instance that manufacturing sector workers outnumbered government employees. Asian investors have virtually all manufacturing plant.

Lesotho has received aid from either a kind of sources, including the United States, the World Bank, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Germany.

Lesotho has about 6,000 km of unpaved & modern a lot-weather roads. There is a short rail line (freight) linking Lesotho by having South Africa that is all owned & operated by South Africa. Lesotho occurs as member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), in which duty own been eliminated on the trade of goods between more member countries Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Lesotho, Swazil&, Namibia, & South Africa likewise form a most common currency and exchange control region called the Common Monetary Area (CMA). A South African rand can be used interchangeably by owning a loti, the Lesotho currency (plural form: maloti). Of these hundred lisente equal 1 loti. A loti is at par by owning a rand.

HIV/AIDS

Based on data from recent estimates, a HIV/AIDS prevalence rate within Lesotho is just about 29%, one of a greatest rates in the globe. the United Nations estimates that this rate might rise to 36% inside a next Xv years, ensuant around a acutely come by life expectancy. Based on data from a Lesotho Bureau of Actual cost, around 2001 life expectancy was forecasted at 48 for men & 56 for women. Recent numbers estimate that life expectancy has fallen to an norm of astir 37 years.

a food & drug administration of Lesotho was at a start slow to recognize the shell of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and its efforts up to now within combating the spread of the disease use at times met by using limited profits. Within 1999, a food & drug administratiin finalized its Strategic Project on HIV/AIDS, the diagram for addressing the education, bar, guidance, and professional assistance needs of the public. Inside late 2003, the food and drug administration announced that it was forming the newly National Helps Commission to coordinate society-wide anti-Helps activities. As well around 2003 the food and drug administratiin of Lesotho hosted the SADC Extraordinary Summit on HIV/AIDS.

Short of trained personnel & medical the diapers, Lesotho is severely afflicted by HIV/Aids. Numerous tikes develop wasted parents. Traditionally shower funerals leave survivors by using a second effect.

Defense

A private security Inflict is composed of a Lesotho Defense Force (LDF--judged 3,500 personnel) & the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS). the LDF consists of an army, an air wing, & a paramilitary wing. A LDF answers to a Prime Minister (world health organization is a Minister of Defense & National Security & likewise the Minister of Public Service), spell the Lesotho Mounted Police Service reports to the Minister of Personal Affairs. There besides occurs as National Security Service (NSS), Intelligence, which is directly accountable to the Prime Minister. Relations between the law force & a army keep close at h& now and againside been tense, and in 1997 a army was required to put down a good police mutiny.

Foreign relations

Lesotho's geographic location makes it pleasantly vulnerable to political & economic developments around South Africa. These are a member of numerous regional economic organizations including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and a Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Lesotho as well move in the United Nations, the African Union, the Nonaligned Movement, the Commonwealth, and numerous more international organizations. Additionally to a United States, South Africa, China, a United Kingdom, Libya, Irel& (Consulate General), and the European Union, wholly presently locate resident diplomatic missions inside Lesotho. the United Nations is represented by a resident mission too, including UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, FAO, WFP, and UNAIDS.

Lesotho has historically maintained usually close ties by having a United States, a United Kingdom, Germany, & more American states. Although Lesotho decided within 1990 to break relations by using a Population's Republic of China (P.R.C.) & reestablish relations by owning Taiwan, it has since restored ties by using a P.R.C. Lesotho as well recognized Palestine as a state, was the heavy public supporter of the prevent of apartheid inside South Africa, & granted a total of South African refugees political asylum when you took the apartheid era.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of Lesotho

To a higher degree 99% of Lesotho's people is ethnically Basotho; more ethnic groups include Europeans & Asians. A united states's people is 80% Christian, a majority of whom come Roman Catholic. More religions come Islam, Hindu, & autochthonic beliefs. Sesotho & English come official languages, & more languages spoken include Zulu & Xhosa.

Culture
Independent article: Culture of Lesotho

Music of Lesotho List of writers from Lesotho

Miscellaneous topics

Communications in Lesotho Foreign relations of Lesotho List of Basotho companies Military of Lesotho National University of Lesotho National University of Lesotho International School Transportation in Lesotho