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Lesotho

Lesotho

Population: 2.4m
GDP: $2.47bn
Debt: 57.1% of GDP (2026 forecast)

news from Lesotho

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Found 24 articles.

Displaying 11-20 out of 24 results.

Polls fail to relieve tension

The country’s longest-serving Prime Minister returns to office with chronic political instability little changed by the elections

King Letsie III opened Lesotho's ninth Parliament on 11 March and the 120 MPs then elected Ntloi Motsamai as Speaker. The ceremonies were the only uncontentious aspect of...


Trouble in the neighbourhood

South African forces are back in Maseru after what may have been an attempted coup but have no mandate for military action

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has returned to Maseru after fleeing the country after a claimed attempt by Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, the army chief he had just sacked,...


Mosisili's snap victory

Calling snap parliamentary elections on 17 February has worked well for Lesotho's pragmatic Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili in his battle with former Communications Minister Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, founder...


Dirty water

Lesotho has scored a rare but convincing victory against corruption. The Maseru courts convicted three multinationals of bribing to secure contracts in the giant Highlands Water Project and...


Caught out

The easy re-election of the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy in the 25 May general elections handed a new mandate to a government determined to pursue those suspected...


Disunited kingdom

South Africa rescued the government but may have destroyed the nation

When they looted and burned businesses in the capital, Maseru, last September, Lesotho's young nationalists meant to protest against the 'protective' intervention in their country by South African...


To a little kingdom

As SADC allies go to war in Congo, Pretoria stumbles into an insurrection nearer home

The military intervention in Lesotho was meant to be a show-case for the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF). It turned into a political-military fiasco. Lesotho’s opposition...


Militants and monarchs

Two troubled kingdoms have embroiled South Africa in some messy power-broking

Pretoria’s African National Congress government finally lost its diplomatic virginity with the deployment of 600 South African soldiers in the early hours of 22 September to put down...


Military mayhem

This time - at dawn on 22 September - mutinous soldiers of the Lesotho Defence Force faced well equipped South African troops, rather than just their own loyalist...


Hanging on

By the grace of the courts, and for a few weeks only, Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle (78) is hanging on as leader of the Basutoland Congress Party, a...


Displaying 11-20 out of 24 results.