📰 Namibia · page 2

Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the years of the PLAN insurgency.[57]84 The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training.[58]85 As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition.[59]86 SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975.[60]87 This practical alliance reinforced the external perception of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War rhetoric in South Africa and the United States.[48]88 For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally.[61]89

Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States.[62]90 South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN.[63]91 PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees.[64]92 The ceasefire ended after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989.[65]93 A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG.[64][66]94

By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes.[60]95 Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise.[67]96 The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a free and fair election.97 SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote.[67]98 This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own.[67]99

The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990.100 It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly).101 The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990.[68][32]102 Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia at a ceremony attended by Nelson Mandela of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state.[69]103 In 1994, shortly before the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia.[70]104

After independence

Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy.105 Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly.106 Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence.[71]107 The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly.[72]108

Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation.109 It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war.110 The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country.111 In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo corpus as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent.112 In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip.[72]113 The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo.114 It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society.[73]115

In 2007, Twyfelfontein was inscribed as a cultural UNESCO World Heritage Site, a prehistoric site with one of the largest concentrations of rock engravings on the African continent.[74]116 In December 2014, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the presidential elections, taking 87% of the vote.117 His predecessor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution.[75]118 In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56.3% of the vote.[76]119 On 4 February 2024, President Hage Geingob died and he was immediately succeeded by vice-president Nangolo Mbumba as new President of Namibia who finished the late President's term as it came to an end in March 2025.[77]120 SWAPO's first female presidential candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, was declared the winner of the 2024 elections with 57% of the vote.[78]121 On 21 March 2025, she was sworn in as Namibia's new president.[79]122

Geography

Main article: Geography of Namibia

At 825615 km2,[80] Namibia is the world's 34th largest country (after Venezuela corpus).123 It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E.124

The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.125

Namibia is situated between the Namib and Kalahari Deserts.126 Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa.[81]127 The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline.128 It varies between 100 and 200 km in width.129 Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast.[24]130

The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast (a coastal desert) to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east.131 The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation 2573 m.[82][83]132

The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over 2000 m. Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish.133 Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert.134 As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation.[84]135

The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip.136 The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around 400 mm per year.137 The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture.[85]138

The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features.139 The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas.140 The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo.[86][87]141 The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation.[88]142

Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world.143 Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world.[89]144 Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast.[90]145 Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated.[91]146 Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored.[92]147 The Caprivi Strip extends east from the northeastern corner of the country.148

Urban settlements

Main article: List of cities and towns in Namibia

Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils.[93][94]149 The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia.150

Climate

Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt.151 Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above 500 mm] through Semi-Arid [between 300 and 500 mm] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from 150 to 300 mm] (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than 100 mm].152 Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above 40 C recorded.[95]153

Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year.154 It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half.155 The winter (June–August) is generally dry.156 Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, and the big one between February and April.[96]157 Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the Skeleton Coast (a coastal desert) to more than 600 mm in the Caprivi Strip.158 Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common.[97]159 In the summer of 2006–07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average.[98]160 In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought,[99] and extended it by an additional 6 months in October 2019.[100]161

Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country.[97]162 In Winter, occasionally a condition known as Bergwind (German for "mountain wind") or Oosweer (Afrikaans for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast.163 As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images.[101]164

The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C (54F).[97]165

Efundja, the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life.[102]166 The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai-Etosha Basin, and fill the oshanas (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there.167 The worst floods as of 2012 occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people.[103]168

Water sources

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Namibia

Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater.169 With an average rainfall of about 350 mm per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi Strip in the northeast (about 600 mm per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as 50 mm and less per annum at the coast.170 The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi Strip.171 In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls.172 Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off.173 Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater.174 Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country.[104]175

More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century.176 One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry.[105]177 An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012.178 It has been estimated to be capable of supplying a population of 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption.[106]179 Experts estimate that Namibia has 7720 km3 of underground water.[107][108]180