Lesotho is due to swear in Moeketsi Majoro, a successor to Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, a day after he stepped down.
Thabane’s resignation ended a months-long crisis after he was accused of involvement in the 2017 murder of his estranged wife.
Thabane’s move could mean him being formally charged for the killing.
Lesotho, a high-altitude, landlocked kingdom encircled by South Africa, is crisscrossed by a network of rivers and mountain ranges including the 3,482m-high peak of Thabana Ntlenyana. On the Thaba Bosiu plateau, near Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, are ruins dating from the 19th-century reign of King Moshoeshoe I. Thaba Bosiu overlooks iconic Mount Qiloane, an enduring symbol of the nation’s Basotho people.
It is by far the largest of the world’s three independent states completely surrounded by the territory of another country; with Vatican City and San Marino being the other two.
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 and is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter.
