Lesotho Lesotho Lesotho (, ) officially the Kingdom of Lesotho () is an enclaved country within the border of South Africa. It is just over in size and has a population of around /1e6 round 0 million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho was 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 that is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The name "Lesotho" roughly translates to "the land of the
Lesotho–United States relations Lesotho–United States relations Lesotho–United States relations are bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Lesotho and the United States of America. The United States was one of the first four countries to establish an embassy in Maseru after Lesotho gained its independence from Great Britain in 1966. Since this time, Lesotho and the United States have consistently maintained positive bilateral relations. In 1996, the United States closed its bilateral aid program in Lesotho. The Southern African regional office of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Gaborone, Botswana now administers most of the U.S. assistance to Lesotho, which totalled approximately