Zambia capital Lusaka
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, and is typically referred to as being in South-Central Africa. Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the northeast, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part. The population of around 20.1 million (2023) is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the north, the core economic hubs of the country.
The region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the 13th century. Following the arrival of European explorers in the 18th century, the British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotseland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia comprising 73 tribes, towards the end of the 19th century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company. On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with the United National Independence Party as the sole legal political party under the motto "One Zambia, One Nation" coined by Kaunda. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, beginning a period of government decentralisation. 
Zambia contains minerals, wildlife, forestry, freshwater and arable land. In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia one of the world's fastest economically reformed countries.Politics
A presidential representative democratic republic has the President of Zambia as both head of state and head of government in a pluriform multi-party system. Government exercises executive power, while legislative power is vested in government and parliament.
Zambia became a republic upon attaining independence in October 1964. From 2011 to 2014, the president had been Michael Sata, until Sata died on 28 October 2014. After Sata's death, Vice President Guy Scott, a Zambian of Scottish descent, became acting President of Zambia. Presidential elections were held on 22 January 2015. A total number of 11 presidential candidates contested in the election and On 24 January 2015, it was announced that Edgar Chagwa Lungu had won the election to become the 6th President. He won 48.33% of the vote, a lead of 1.66 percentage points (3.56%) over his closest rival, Hakainde Hichilema, with 46.67%. Nine other candidates all got less than 1% each. In August 2016 Zambian general election president Edgar Lungu won re-election in the first round of the election. The opposition had allegations of fraud and the governing Patriotic Front (PF) rejected the allegations made by opposition UPND party.In the 2021 general elections, characterised by a 70% voter turnout, Hakainde Hichilema won 59% of the vote, with his closest rival, incumbent president Edgar Chagwa Lungu, receiving 39% of the vote. On 16 August Edgar Lungu conceded in a TV statement, sending a letter and congratulating president-elect Hakainde Hichilema. On 24 August 2021, Hakainde Hichilema was sworn in as the new President of Zambia in a ceremony attended by heads of states including the head of commonwealth it was held at the Heroes Stadium in the capital city Lusaka.In 2019, Zambia signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.Administrative divisions
Zambia is administratively divided into ten provinces subdivided into 116 districts, and electorally into 156 constituencies and 1,281 wards.
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