It is located on the B8 national road on the banks of the Zambezi River in the Caprivi Strip in lush riverine vegetation with tropical birds and monkeys.

About 40 km east of Katima Mulilo lies the village of Bukalo, where the road to Ngoma branches off and joins Namibia to Botswana.

Established and run as a garrison for a long time, Katima Mulilo still shows signs of its military past.

In the city centre was the South African Defence Force military base and almost every house had a bomb shelter.

This development has, however, also fanned illegal business activities, and driven the establishment of shanty towns to an extent that endangers social stability.

There is an important international electricity inter–link facility, the Caprivi Link Inter–Connector; its inauguration has improved the power supply to the town.

The town is served by Katima Mulilo Airport, situated about 18 km to the southwest, which is serviced by regular flights from the capital Windhoek.

The route continued to Mongu, the administrative capital of Barotseland, and northwards to the settlement of Balovale (now Zambezi) in the North West of Zambia, at 13°33′04″S 23°06′54″E / 13.551°S 23.115°E / -13.551; 23.115.

[citation needed] On 28 January 1935, the administrative centre of the Caprivi Strip was moved from Schuckmannsburg to Katima Mulilo.

As a response to this development, Nghweeze (derived from totela language:which literally means "stab me") township was established to enable some degree of control over Blacks by only allowing local workers and their families to take up residence.

As in World War II, it was a strategically important location, this time due to troop transports into and out of Zambia and Angola.

[21] The oldest suburbs are Nghweeze, the former Blacks' township, and Katima Mulilo Proper, the area restricted to Whites during the apartheid era.

Butterfly, Cowboy, Choto and Mahohoma are registered informal settlements of Katima, further parts of town are named Nambweza, Soweto (South–Western Townships, a reminiscence of the famous suburb of Johannesburg), New Look, Mabuluma, Lyambai, Bebi, Greenwell Matongo, Macaravan East and West, and NHE (from National Housing Enterprises, a governmental low-cost housing company that drew development here).

They consist of several tribes, including the Bafwe, Bambukushu, Basubia, Batotela, and Bayeyi, each with its own dialect and traditional authority.

Silozi serves as the standard language that unifies them and is widely used in educational materials, media such as television and radio, and government communications.

[23][24] The town's coat of arms, still very similar to that used by the Caprivi government, depicts these tribes as two elephants facing each other, symbolising unity and peaceful coexistence of the tribal chiefs.

[23] Zambezi Region, whose administrative capital Katima Mulilo is, is a stronghold of Namibia's ruling SWAPO party.