Lesotho

Lesotho is a landlocked country in Southern Africa entirely surrounded by South Africa, the largest of the world's three sovereign enclaves, its territory covering more than 30,000 square kilometers within the Maloti Mountains, home to the highest peaks on the African continent. Maseru is its capital and principal city, and the population of roughly 2.3 million is remarkably homogeneous, with 99.7 percent identifying as Basotho and Sesotho as the official language alongside English, IsiXhosa and SiPhuthi. Lesotho traces its origin to 1824, when King Moshoeshoe I founded the kingdom; the territory became a British protectorate in 1868 and a crown colony in 1884, gaining independence on 4 October 1966, followed by a period of military rule before constitutional governance was restored in 1993. Lesotho remains a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, with King Letsie III as monarch and Prime Minister Sam Matekane holding executive authority; it is a lower-middle-income country with one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, 81 percent as of 2021, and belongs to the United Nations, the African Union, the Commonwealth and the Southern African Development Community.