Zimbabwe

REGION: Southern Africa
CAPITAL CITY: Harare
POPULATION: 12,936,000
LAND AREA: The size of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia combined

What is now Zimbabwe was among the last African nations to gain legal independence and majority rule. In 1965, white minority citizens of "Southern Rhodesia" (as Zimbabwe was named at the time) unilaterally seceded from Britain. U.N. sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and genuine independence, including the name change to Zimbabwe, in 1980. Since that time, as have most countries in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe has suffered from the apartheid South Africa-backed regional destabilization war ― which ended in 1992 ― and some of the highest rates of HIV infection and AIDS-related death in the world. Civil wars in neighboring countries also have affected Zimbabwe, causing, for example, large influxes of refugees. Most Zimbabweans are farmers. Only 9 percent of the land is arable. Factors ranging from severe droughts to the government's land redistribution policies have, in recent years, badly hurt the agricultural economy. High inflation as well as critical food and fuel shortages have resulted. Increasing numbers of Zimbabweans have been leaving the country for Botswana and South Africa, in search of better economic opportunities.

(Updated, Dec. 18, 2007)