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General Information Area: 824,292 sq km (318,261 sq miles). Population: 1,643,000 (1996). Population Density: 2.0 per sq km. Capital: Windhoek. Population: 161,000 (1992). GEOGRAPHY: Namibia is in southwest Africa. It is a large and mainly arid country sharing borders with Angola to the north, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the south and, in the Caprivi Strip, a narrow panhandle of Namibian territory jutting from the northeast corner of the country, with Zambia and Zimbabwe. To the west is 1280km (795 miles) of some of the most desolate and lonely coastline in the world. The port of Walvis Bay, situated roughly halfway down Namibia’s coast, was returned by South Africa to Namibian jurisdiction in February 1994. Along its entire length, the vast shifting sand dunes of the Namib Desert spread inland for 80-130km (50-80 miles). In the interior, the escarpment of a north–south plateau slopes away to the east and north into the vast interior sand basin of the Kalahari. In the far northwest, the 66,000 sq km (25,500 sq miles) of the Kaokoland mountains run along the coast, while further inland lies the Etosha Pan (a dried-out saline lake), surrounded by grasslands and bush which support a large and varied wildlife. The Etosha National Park & Game Reserve is one of the finest in Africa, in that it remains, to a large extent, free of human influence. Government: Republic. Gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Head of State: President Samuel Nujoma since 1990. Head of Government: Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab since 2002. Language: English is the official language. Afrikaans is spoken by most people. German, Herero, Kavango, Nama and Owambo are also spoken. Religion: Christian majority. Time: GMT + 2 (GMT + 1 from April to August). Electricity: 220/240 volts AC. Outlets are of the three-pin type. Communications:   Telephone IDD is available. Country code: 264. Outgoing international code: 00. Mobile telephone GSM 900 network in use. The main network provider is MTC (website: www.mtc.com.na). Fax Most hotels have facilities. Internet ISPs include IML (website: www.iml.com.na) and NCS. There are Internet cafes in Walvis Bay and Windhoek. Post Good postal service. Airmail to Europe takes from approximately four days to two weeks. Press Newspapers are printed Monday to Friday. English-language dailies include The Windhoek Advertiser and The Namibian; weeklies include The Windhoek Observer. New Era is printed twice weekly. BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change. BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice): MHz 21.47 12.10 11.94 6.005 Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov): MHz 15.58 11.98 6.035 0.909 From www.columbusguides.com, Copyright © 2004 Highbury Columbus Travel Publishing Terms and Conditions apply.