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76-626: Oshana is one of only three Namibian regions without either a coastline or a foreign border. It borders the following regions: The name Oshana describes the most prominent landscape feature in the area, namely the shallow, seasonally inundated depressions which underpin the local agro ecological system. Although communications are hindered during the rainy season, the fish which breed in the oshanas provide an important source of dietary protein. The Oshakati - Ongwediva - Ondangwa complex has experienced dramatic urban growth in recent years and forms an important commercial and potential industrial focus. As

152-458: A control tower may contribute to the improvement of all-weather air and transport. Oshakati has a state hospital which supports a number of clinics. Although both primary and secondary schools are spread across the region, they are few relative to the amount of inhabitants of the region. Omahangu is the principal staple crop grown in Oshana, which is suitable for agriculture. However, the soil

228-654: A free and fair election . SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote. This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own. The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990. 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

304-520: A semi-arid climate ( BSh , according to the Köppen climate classification ), with hot summers and relatively mild winters (with warm days and cool nights). The average annual precipitation is 472 mm (19 in), with most rainfall occurring mainly during summer. Oshakati is governed by a town council that has seven seats. The town area covers two electoral constituencies, Oshakati East and Oshakati West . Oshana Region, to which Oshakati belongs,

380-417: A council seat. Clemens Kashuupulwa was appointed governor of Oshana in 1998. He was reappointed in 2015 following the 2014 election and served in this position until November 2018. In March 2019 Elia Irimari was appointed to succeed him. 18°10′S 15°45′E  /  18.167°S 15.750°E  / -18.167; 15.750 Oshakati Oshakati is a town in northern Namibia . It

456-506: A matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms". The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its Trusteeship Council in anticipation of their independence. South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism. When

532-520: A sewage-to-water treatment project in Namibia not only provides citizens with safe drinking water, but also boosts productivity by 6% per year. All pollutants and impurities are removed using cutting-edge "multi-barrier" technology, which includes residual chlorination, ozone treatment, and ultra membrane filtration. Strict bio-monitoring methods are also used throughout the process to ensure high-quality, safe drinking water. On 8 June 2023, Namibia became

608-537: A video conferencing room, and shelving spaces for up to 35,000 books. Oshakati town, (popularly known as 'Otshakati tsha Nangombe' by the native Kwambi people) is within the Kwambi traditional authority. Oshakati Town Council hosts the annual Oshakati Totem Expo . It combines the celebration of local traditions with a modern business exhibition. The event was launched by Oshana governor Clemens Kashuupulwa , on 9 June 2012. The four-day event now annually takes place in

684-489: A westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as 50 mm (2 in) and less per annum at the coast. 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. In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls. Otherwise, surface water

760-439: A whole, it forms the second largest population concentration in Namibia after Windhoek , but it still lacks basic infrastructure and most of the services and facilities normally found in urban areas of this size. The majority of businesses in northern Namibia are located here, providing a significant amount of employment. However, urbanisation is continuing within the region. The area is far more densely populated in north, which

836-920: Is mayor of Oshakati. Leonard Hango was reelected in 2024 as the mayor of Oshakati Town Council. Formerly known as the Northern Campus , Oshakati Campus is the oldest satellite campus of the University of Namibia , inaugurated on 7 May 1998 by Sam Nujoma , Founding President of the Republic of Namibia and UNAM founding chancellor. Many primary and secondary schools are to be found in Oshakati, e.g. Iipumbu, Oshakati, Ngolo, Erundu Secondary School , Cabatana and others, including Afoti Combined School in Uuvudhiya constituency in Oshana Region in

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912-555: Is 24.5%. Oshana has 137 schools with a total of 50,740 pupils. The region comprises eleven constituencies : Electorally, Oshana region is consistently dominated by the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). In the 2004 regional election for the National Assembly of Namibia , SWAPO won in all constituencies by a landslide. The 2015 local and regional elections saw SWAPO obtain 92% of

988-762: Is a stronghold of Namibia's ruling SWAPO party. In the 2015 local authority election SWAPO won by a landslide (4,569 votes) and gained six council seats. The remaining seat went to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) which gained 330 votes. Major Katrina Shimbulu from SWAPO has been serving in this position from 2007 to 2010, and again after the 2015 election. SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election . It obtained 3,028 votes and gained four seats. The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, obtained 1,887 votes and gained three seats. Leonard Hango

1064-531: Is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia. Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt. Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above 500 mm (20 in)] through Semi-Arid [between 300 and 500 mm (12 and 20 in)] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from 150 to 300 mm (6 to 12 in)] (these three regions are inland from

1140-582: Is exhausted over much of the central area and requires substantial fertilisation in order to maintain reasonable productivity. Cattle also do well here and herds are extensive. The southern portion of Oshana is an extensive savannah plain stretching as far as the Etosha Pan, but the generally high salinity of soil and water render it unsuitable for grazing or cultivation. According to the 2012 Namibia Labour Force Survey, unemployment in Oshana Region

1216-408: Is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture. The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features. The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas. The Succulent Karoo

1292-453: 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. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in

1368-488: Is in between", although some believe that the name (Oshakati, also Otshakati) was used to refer to the broadcasting tower, which at 275 metres (902 ft) high was the tallest structure in the town centre and in Namibia. On 19 February 1988, a bomb blast at the First National Bank in Oshakati killed 27 people and badly injuring nearly 30 others, most of them nurses and teachers. No one was ever convicted of

1444-422: Is linked to Tsumeb and other regions by the high quality trunk road ; this also facilitates the transport of freight . However, a significant improvement in the rest of the road network and in other forms of telecommunications are required. Oshakati and Ondangwa have airstrips which handle medium-sized airplanes in daylight only and provision can be made for both passengers and airfreight. The establishment of

1520-417: Is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off. Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater. 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

1596-576: Is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation. The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around 400 mm (16 in) per year. The area

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1672-473: Is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry. Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, and the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than 600 mm (24 in) in

1748-553: Is situated in the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin and cut by the Okatana River . Both of these geographic features make the town prone to flooding; in 2008 it was last hit by heavy floods. The Oshakati Master Plan Project is underway to build a 23 kilometres (14 mi) dike around the town, to deepen and straighten the river, and to resettle people living near the riverbed and clogging the flow of water. Oshakati has

1824-668: Is the regional capital of the Oshana Region and one of Namibia's largest cities both by population and as an economic center. Oshakati was founded in July 1966 and proclaimed a town in 1992. The town was used as a base of operations by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the South African Border War . In Oshiwambo , the language of the Ovambo people , the town's name means "that which

1900-578: The Bantu expansion . From 1600 the Ovambo formed kingdoms, such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama . In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa . Between 1904 and 1908, German troops waged a punitive campaign against the Herero and Nama which escalated into the first genocide of the 20th century. German rule ended during

1976-602: The First World War with a 1915 defeat by South African forces. In 1920, after the end of the war, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa . In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation resulted in

2052-677: The German government acknowledge the genocide and agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years in community aid. During World War I, South African troops under General Louis Botha occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a League of Nations mandate , until 1990. The mandate system

2128-583: The Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against ruthless German settlers. In a calculated punitive action by the German settlers, government officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide . In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of

2204-522: The Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994. Namibia is a stable parliamentary democracy . Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry  – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium , gold , silver and base metals  – form the basis of its economy , while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small. Despite significant GDP growth since its independence, poverty and inequality remain significant in

2280-674: The Skeleton Coast 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. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation 2,606 metres (8,550 ft). The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between 100 and 200 kilometres (60 and 120 mi) in width. Areas within

2356-682: The Tripartite Accord , under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States. South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN. 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

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2432-542: The United Nations assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but South Africa maintained de facto rule until 1973, when the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation ( SWAPO ) as the official representative of the Namibian people. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the South African Border War . However, Walvis Bay and

2508-698: The United Nations , the Southern African Development Community , the African Union and the Commonwealth of Nations . The name of the country is derived from the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world. The word Namib itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place". The name was chosen by Mburumba Kerina , who originally proposed "Republic of Namib". Before Namibia became independent in 1990, its territory

2584-466: The oshanas ( Oshiwambo : flood plains) there. The worst floods so far occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people. Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater. With an average rainfall of about 350 mm (14 in) per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi Strip in the northeast (about 600 mm (24 in) per annum) and decreases in

2660-506: The African continent. In December 2014, Prime Minister Hage Geingob , the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the presidential elections , taking 87% of the vote. His predecessor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba , also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution. In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56.3% of the vote. On 4 February 2024, President Hage Geingob died and he

2736-478: The Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm (2 in) per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. 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. As the area behind

2812-455: The Caprivi Strip. Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common. In the summer of 2006/07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average. In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought, and extended it by an additional 6 months in October 2019. Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of

2888-583: The Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over 2,000 metres (7,000 ft). Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it

2964-620: The Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation. It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent. In 1999,

3040-675: The Omapopo cluster of Oshakati Circuit. The Oshana Regional Study and Resource Center was established on September 17, 2014, through the assistance of the Millennium Challenge Account Namibia (MCA-N). Situated between the GIPF house and the Social Security regional head office in Oshakati, the library can host up to 600 people, has 220 study spaces, a meeting hall that can accommodate 125 seated people,

3116-463: The Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment. On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the OvaHerero at Windhoek, Gobabis , and Okahandja , who resisted their encroachment. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the German Empire deployed troops to the contested places and cemented

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3192-559: The Portuguese did not try to claim the area. Like most of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa , Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century. At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden. In 1870, Finnish missionaries came to the northern part of Namibia to spread the Lutheran religion among the Ovambo and Kavango people . In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed

3268-472: The San people as hunter-gatherers . Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu people began to arrive during the Bantu expansion from central Africa. From the late 18th century onward, Oorlam people from Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia. Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. They received the missionaries accompanying

3344-638: The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed Namibia . United Nations Security Council Resolution 269 , adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal. In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during

3420-558: The UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory. The UN General Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966. South Africa began imposing apartheid , its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during

3496-602: The area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey. Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under Otto von Bismarck to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as German South West Africa ( Deutsch-Südwestafrika ). The Palgrave Commission by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay

3572-507: The bombing and the issue was dropped upon independence in 1990 in favour of national reconciliation. Oshakati has experienced much development since Namibia achieved independence in 1990. It was proclaimed a town in 1992. Oshakati is located near the B1 , Namibia's main highway, which stretches from South Africa through the capital Windhoek and on to the Angolan border. Since the turn of

3648-421: The century, there are now many shops like furniture stores, shoes stores, pharmacies, etc. The three main shopping centres are Game, Etango, and Yetu. The Oshakati Independence Stadium is situated in town. In April 2006, the Oshakati town council building was inaugurated by Botswana 's president Festus Mogae . Dr. Frans Aupa Indongo Open Market sells groceries, dried fish and dried Mopane worms . Oshakati

3724-502: 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. The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C (54F). Efundja , the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life. The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai-Etosha Basin , and fill

3800-649: The country. More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry. An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012. 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. Experts estimate that Namibia has 7,720 km (1,850 cu mi) of underground water. According to African Folder,

3876-406: The country. 40.9% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty , and more than 400,000 people continue to live in informal housing . Income disparity in the country is one of the world's highest with a Gini coefficient of 59.1 in 2015. With a population of 3,022,401 people today, Namibia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Namibia is a member state of

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3952-600: The downfall of the Herero in Namibia was a model for the Nazis in the Holocaust . The memory of what happened under German rule has contributed to shape the ethnic identity in independent Namibia and has kept its significance in today's relations with Germany. The German minister for development aid apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004. However, the German government distanced itself from this apology. Only in 2021 did

4028-609: The east and south. Although it does not border Zimbabwe , less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek . The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa , Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the Khoi , San , Damara and Nama people . Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of

4104-434: 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. Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise . The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure

4180-543: The late 1940s. Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws , curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement. Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the " Police Zone ", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located. Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands . During

4256-627: The late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated decolonisation of Africa and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa. Movements such as the South West African National Union (SWANU) and the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for

4332-512: The latter years of the PLAN insurgency. The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training. As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition. SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned

4408-587: The least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa. 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, the Great Escarpment , the Bushveld , and the Kalahari Desert. The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by

4484-456: The mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy. As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the United Nations (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the United Nations Charter stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be

4560-408: The months of June or July. Oshakati has a football team, Oshakati City FC . Namibia Namibia ( / n ə ˈ m ɪ b i ə / , / n æ ˈ -/ ), officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in Southern Africa . Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean . It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to

4636-463: The movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975. 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. For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally. Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to

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4712-490: The national assembly). The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990. 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. In 1994, shortly before the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia. Since independence Namibia has completed

4788-440: The national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip . The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo . It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society. 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

4864-464: The population). The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948. Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" ( Bantustans ). Some historians have speculated that

4940-412: The return of refugees. The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989. 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. By the end of the 11-month transition period,

5016-412: The status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero. In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope , then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands ; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910. The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486, but

5092-433: The striking workers would later join SWAPO's PLAN as part of the South African Border War. As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline. The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate. On 12 June 1968,

5168-401: The territory. In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the South African Border War . In 1971 Namibian contract workers led a general strike against the contract system and in support of independence. Some of

5244-447: The total votes ( 2010 : 91.0) and win uncontested seven of the eleven Oshana constituencies. The remaining four constituencies SWAPO won by a landslide, with results well over 90%. Although SWAPO's support dropped to 65.4% of the total votes in the 2020 regional election it again won in all constituencies. Only in Ondangwa Urban did the upstart Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, come close to

5320-501: The transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy. Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence. The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly. Since independence,

5396-401: The western escarpment ) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than 100 mm (4 in)]. 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 (104 °F) recorded. Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It

5472-578: The world. 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. Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored. The Caprivi Strip extends east from the northeastern corner of the country. Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils. The capital Windhoek

5548-499: Was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves. It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination. South Africa interpreted

5624-459: Was immediately succeeded by vice-president Nangolo Mbumba as new President of Namibia. At 825,615 km (318,772 sq mi), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela). It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E . Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has

5700-578: Was known first as German South-West Africa ( Deutsch-Südwestafrika ), and then as South West Africa , reflecting its colonial occupation by Germans and South Africans, respectively. The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the San , Damara , and Nama . For thousands of years, the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa maintained a nomadic life, the Khoikhoi as pastoralists and

5776-519: Was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa. In 1897, a rinderpest epidemic caused massive cattle die-offs of an estimated 95% of cattle in southern and central Namibia. In response the German colonisers set up a veterinary cordon fence known as the Red Line . In 1907 this fence then broadly defined the boundaries for the first Police Zone. From 1904 to 1907,

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