Every Country of the World by Description (HARD)

a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia.

It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east, Greece to the south; and maritime borders with Greece, Montenegro and Italy to the west.

the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest by area in the African Union and the Arab world.

a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south.

It is the second-largest lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in both total area and population (behind Brazil), and it is the seventh-largest country in Africa, bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south.

a part of the Caucasus region; and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the Lachin corridor under a Russian peacekeeping force, and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.

It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area.

a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe.

Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, the Russian republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south.

It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago's population.

The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 51 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands.

It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 163 million people, in an area of 148,460 square kilometres (57,320 sq mi), making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world

It is in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 km (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea

Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.

It is divided into three highly autonomous regions: the Flemish Region (Flanders) in the north, the Walloon Region (Wallonia) in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region.

the only Central American country where English is the official language

a tropical nation, highly dependent on agriculture, and is a large exporter of cotton and palm oil.

The subalpine Himalayan mountains in the north rise from the country's lush subtropical plains in the south.

Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated within the Amazon basin

In the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest moderately hilly, and in the northeast predominantly flatland.

A mid-sized country of just over 2.3 million people, it is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

It borders all other countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent's land area.

Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts and Macedonians; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45.

Previously called Republic of Upper Volta

Bouts of ethnic cleansing and ultimately two civil wars and genocides during the 1970s and again in the 1990s resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and left the economy undeveloped and the population as one of the world's poorest.

Buddhism is enshrined in the constitution as the official state religion, and is practised by more than 97% of the population.

The country is sometimes identified as West African and other times as Central African, due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West and Central Africa.

Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border.

an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi).

Two-thirds of the country is within the Ubangi River basin (which flows into the Congo), while the remaining third lies in the basin of the Chari, which flows into Lake Chad.

has several regions: a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanian Savanna zone in the south.

the southernmost country in the world, and borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south.

The country is officially divided into 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

Beginning in the 1960s, the country suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s.

The major islands are commonly known by their French names: northwesternmost Grande Comore (Ngazidja), Mohéli (Mwali), and Anjouan (Ndzuani).

It is known for its long-standing and stable democracy, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English.

independent from Austria-Hungary, was proclaimed in Zagreb, and in December 1918, merged into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

It has currently one of the world's only planned economies, and its economy is dominated by the tourism industry and the exports of skilled labor, sugar, tobacco, and coffee.

It is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean

It is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the east.

It is, by area, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa (after Algeria), and the 11th-largest in the world.

Has two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

It is bordered by Somalia in the south, Ethiopia in the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the east.

has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its natural environment.

has the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region and is the eighth-largest economy in Latin America.

colonised by Portugal in the 16th century and was known as Portuguese Timor until 28 November 1975, when the Revolutionary Front (Fretilin) declared the territory's independence. Nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by the Indonesian military; it was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year.

also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (621 mi) west of the mainland.

has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE.

Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminated in the devastating Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992, fought between the military-led government backed by the United States, and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups.

The insular region consists of the islands of Bioko (formerly Fernando Pó) in the Gulf of Guinea and Annobón, a small volcanic island which is the only part of the country south of the equator.

has nine national languages, which are Tigrinya, Tigre, Afar, Beja, Bilen, Kunama, Nara and Saho.

In 1987, after the peaceful Singing Revolution, the de facto independence was restored on 20 August 1991.

formerly and still commonly known in English as Swaziland

It is widely considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond.

It consists of four states – from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae – that are spread across the western Pacific.

consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi).

Finnish, the native language of the Finns, is among the only few Finnic languages in the world.

including its overseas territories, has the most time zones of any country, with a total of twelve.

Abundant petroleum and foreign private investment have helped make it one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the fifth highest HDI in the region

It is the smallest country within mainland Africa, and is surrounded by Senegal, except for its western coast on the Atlantic Ocean.

It is a part of the Caucasus region, bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north and east by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan.

The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust.

Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire, followed by numerous other European powers, contested the area for trading rights, until the British ultimately established control of the coast by the late 19th century.

Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres (9,573 ft).

is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its production of nutmeg and mace crops.

endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military.

It is the world's second largest producer of bauxite, and has rich deposits of diamonds and gold.

was once part of the kingdom of Kaabu,[8] as well as part of the Mali Empire.

consists of the large shield landmass north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River known as the "land of many waters".

The first Europeans arrived on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who initially believed he had found India or China. Columbus subsequently founded the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad, on what is now the northeastern coast

is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.

the official language, is the world's most widely spoken Uralic language, and among the few non-Indo-European languages to be widely spoken in Europe.

has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army, with a lightly armed coast guard.

Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.

has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century when Srivijaya and later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent.

an Islamic theocracy which includes elements of a presidential democracy, with the ultimate authority vested in an autocratic "Supreme Leader", a position held by Ali Khamenei since 1989 following Khomeini's death.

Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through it and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf.

A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, creating a free state, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades

has since fought several wars with Arab countries, and since the Six-Day War in June 1967 held occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip

is home to the world's largest number of World Heritage Sites (55), and is the fifth-most visited country.

Through the production of coffee and cocoa, the country was an economic powerhouse in West Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, though it went through an economic crisis in the 1980s, contributing to a period of political and social turmoil.

Under British colonial rule it became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their descendants.

The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents.

In 1946, it became an independent state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, but was renamed in 1949

the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth-largest country in the world.

Numerous disputes between the UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution, which began in 1952, and the subsequent declaration of independence in 1963.

the only country in the world to be situated in all four hemispheres.

On 17 February 2008, it unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia.

In 1990, it was invaded, and later annexed, by Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

In 1876, it became part of the Russian Empire, remaining in the USSR as the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic after the Russian Revolution.

At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, it is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest.

It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west.

It initially enjoyed political and economic stability, which was shattered by the bloody Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) between various political and sectarian factions.

previously the British Crown Colony of Basutoland, but it declared independence from the United Kingdom on 4 October 1966. It is now a fully sovereign state and is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), who believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States.

The "bloodless" coup leader Muammar Gaddafi ruled the country from 1969 and its Cultural Revolution in 1973 until he was overthrown and killed in the 2011 Civil War.

is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, along with Uzbekistan.

It is one of the Baltic states, and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the southeast of Sweden and the east of Denmark, with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the southwest.

It has three official languages: French, German, and the national language of Luxembourgish.

As of 2012, there were officially 103 species and subspecies of lemur, 39 of which were described by zoologists between 2000 and 2008.

The country is nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa" because of the friendliness of its people.

Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government.

one of the world's most geographically dispersed sovereign states as well as the smallest Asian country by land area and, with around 557,426 inhabitants, the 2nd least populous country in Asia.

In January 2012, an armed conflict broke out in the north, in which Tuareg rebels took control of a territory in the north, and in April declared the secession of a new state, Azawad

became a British colony in 1813, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet. It was besieged by the Axis powers during World War II and was an important Allied base for operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean.

an island country and an associated state of the United States near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line.

The country’s name derives from the name of the ancient Berber kingdom of Mauretania, located in present-day Morocco and Algeria.

The island was the only known home of the dodo, which, along with several other avian species, was made extinct by human activities relatively soon after the island's settlement.

has the most Spanish-speakers.

It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south

Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the state's first casino, the Monte Carlo Casino, as well as a railway connection to Paris.

In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history.

It is located on the Adriatic Sea and is a part of the Balkans, sharing borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, Serbia to the east, Albania to the southeast, the Adriatic Sea and Croatia to the west.

claims the exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (all of which are under Spanish jurisdiction) and several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast.

After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992.

is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest.

The driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has been inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people.

is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations.

has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth.

literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) above sea level, and nearly 26% falling below sea level.

It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island (Te Waipounamu)—and more than 700 smaller islands, covering a total area of 268,021 square kilometres (103,500 sq mi).

has undergone periods of political unrest, dictatorship, occupation and fiscal crisis, including the Nicaraguan Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the Contra War of the 1980s.

is a developing country, which consistently ranks near the bottom in the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI); it was ranked 187th of 188 countries for 2015 and 189th out of 189 countries in the 2018 and 2019 reports

Lagos is the most populous city in the country and the African continent, as well as one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.

is a totalitarian dictatorship, with an elaborate cult of personality around the Kim dynasty.

a landlocked country bordering with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.

has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea.

At its peak in the 19th century, Omani influence or control extended across the Strait of Hormuz to modern-day Iran and Pakistan, and as far south as Zanzibar

is the site of several ancient cultures, most notably the 8,500-year-old Neolithic site of Mehrgarh, the oldest in South Asia, and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, the most extensive of the civilisations of the Old World.

Following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German–Spanish Treaty, where they were administered as part of German New Guinea.

With the backing of the United States, it seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the construction of the Panama Canal to be completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914.

The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically. It is known to have numerous groups of uncontacted peoples, and researchers believe there are many undiscovered species of plants and animals in the interior.

This period ended with the disastrous Paraguayan War (1864–70), during which the country lost half its prewar population and around 25–33% of its territory to the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.

The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II.

In September 1939, World War II began with the invasion of it by Germany, followed by the Soviets invading it in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

It is the westernmost sovereign state in mainland Europe, being bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain.

In the 21st century, it emerged as a significant power in the Arab world both through its globally expanding media group, Al Jazeera Media Network, and reportedly supporting several rebel groups financially during the Arab Spring.

The sovereign state has had multi-party elections since 1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 Republic of the Congo Civil War, and President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who first came to power in 1979, has ruled for 35 of the past 40 years.

The River Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a generally southeasterly direction for 2,857 km (1,775 mi), before emptying into it's Danube Delta.

It is the largest country in the world; covering over 17,125,191 square kilometres (6,612,073 sq mi), consisting of more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, extending to eleven time zones, and has borders with sixteen sovereign nations.

Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide that followed, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu.

Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population.

It was also known as the "Helen of the West" after the Greek mythological character, Helen of Troy.

It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The country was occupied by the German Empire from 1899 to 1915, and by a joint British and New Zealand colonial administration until 1 January 1962, when it achieved independence.

Its capital is the City of San Marino and its largest settlement is Dogana. The capital is set at the highest point of the country on a steep mountain.

The rich volcanic soil and proximity to the Equator made São Tomé and Príncipe ideal for sugar cultivation, followed later by cash crops such as coffee and cocoa; the lucrative plantation economy was heavily dependent upon imported African slaves.

The state has attracted criticism for a variety of reasons, including its role in the Yemeni Civil War, alleged sponsorship of Islamic terrorism, failure to adopt adequate measures against human trafficking and its poor human rights record, which has been characterized by the excessive and often extrajudicial use of capital punishment, state-sponsored discrimination against religious minorities and atheists, and antisemitism, and its strict interpretation of Shari'a law.

nearly surrounds The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, which separates Senegal's southern region of Casamance from the rest of the country.

The country claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo.

was uninhabited prior to being encountered by Europeans in the 16th century. It faced competing French and British interests until coming under full British control in the late 18th century.

It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast.

The country's territory is composed of one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet, the combined area of which has increased by 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects.

became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce.

has a mostly mountainous terrain with a mainly continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral, which has a sub-Mediterranean climate, and of the Julian Alps in the northwest, which have an Alpine climate.

consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. It has a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi), and a population of 652,858.

A consequence of the collapse of governmental authority that accompanied the civil war was the emergence of piracy in the unpatrolled Indian Ocean waters off of the coast of it.

The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century.

After the war's end in 1953, the country's economy began to soar, recording the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1980 and 1990.

It gained independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition.

The African exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make it the only European country to have a physical border with an African country (Morocco).

an island country in South Asia. It is situated on the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; while being separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.

Between 1989 and 2019, it experienced a 30-year-long military dictatorship led by Omar al-Bashir accused of widespread human rights abuses including torture, persecution of minorities, allegations of sponsoring global terrorism and notably, ethnic genocide due to its role in the War in the Darfur region that broke out in 2003.

is the only sovereign nation outside Europe where Dutch is the official and prevailing language of government, business, media, and education.

In 2014, it celebrated 200 years of peace, breaking even Switzerland's record for peace.

Zürich, Geneva, and Basel. These cities are home to several offices of international organisations such as the headquarters of FIFA, the UN's second-largest Office, and the main building of the Bank for International Settlements.

was ranked last on the Global Peace Index from 2016 to 2018, making it the most violent country in the world due to the war.

The resumption of the Chinese Civil War resulted in the ROC's loss of mainland China to forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and retreat to it in 1949.

The country, led by President Emomali Rahmon since 1994, has been criticised by a number of non-governmental organizations for authoritarian leadership, corruption and widespread violations of human rights, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, worsening political repression, and a lack of religious freedom and other civil liberties.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain is in the North East of it

formerly known as Siam

At the time of his death, Eyadéma was the longest-serving leader in modern African history, having been president for 38 years.

It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest; Samoa to the northeast; New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west; Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east; and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest.

the southernmost island country in the Caribbean and is known for its fossil-fuel wealth.

In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution, triggered by the lack of freedom and democracy under the 24-year rule of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, overthrew his regime and catalyzed the broader Arab Spring across the region.

a transcontinental country straddling Southeastern Europe and Western Asia.

In 1925, it became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia.

gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962. The period since then has been marked by violent conflicts, including an eight-year-long military dictatorship led by Idi Amin.

is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia.

is a federal elective constitutional monarchy formed from a federation of seven emirates, consisting of Abu Dhabi (which serves as the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain.

The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952.

Considered a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, its population has been profoundly shaped by centuries of immigration. It ranks high in international measures of economic freedom, reduced levels of perceived corruption, quality of life, and quality of higher education.

It borders Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, with the Río de la Plata (Silver River) to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast.

Along with Liechtenstein, it is one of two doubly landlocked countries.

In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through an Anglo–French condominium.

is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state (a type of theocracy) ruled by the pope who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.

Previously, the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa, but oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues. The excesses and poor policies of the incumbent government led to the collapse of it's entire economy.

Following their victory against the French in the First Indochina War, which ended in 1954, the nation was divided into two rival states: communist North and anti-communist South.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis and conflict has received widespread criticism for having a dramatic worsening effect on it's humanitarian situation, that some say has reached the level of a "humanitarian disaster" and some have even labelled it as a genocide.

Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west.

is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.