Flag of Djibouti

What the flag of Djibouti looks like

The flag of Djibouti is divided into two horizontal bands of equal height. The upper band is light blue and the lower band is light green. A white equilateral triangle sits at the hoist, with its base along the pole and its tip reaching toward the middle of the flag. In the center of the triangle is a red five-pointed star. The flag has a ratio of 2:3.

The triangle is fairly large, so the blue and green bands are visible mostly toward the fly. The shade of blue is a sky color rather than a navy blue, which helps tell the flag apart from many others.

Djibouti flag meaning and symbolism

The meaning of the Djibouti flag is simple to remember and is widely repeated:

• Light blue stands for the sky and the sea. It also represents the Somalis.
• Green stands for the everlasting green of the earth. It also represents the Afars, the other main community of Djibouti.
• White stands for peace.
• The red star stands for unity and for the blood shed by the martyrs of independence.

The five points of the star are also read as a reference to Djibouti being one of the five regions inhabited by the Somali people, in line with the star on the flag of Somalia.

History of the Djibouti flag

The territory was a French colony from the late 19th century, first called French Somaliland and, from 1967, the French Territory of the Afars and Issas. During this time the French tricolor was the official flag. The present flag was created in the 1960s as the party flag of the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast (FLCS), a guerrilla group that fought for independence from France, with help from the African People's League for Independence (LPAI). It combines the layout and colors of the FLCS flag.

Djibouti became independent on 27 June 1977, and the flag was raised for the first time that day by the head of police, Yacin Yabeh Galeb. It has stayed the same since. It is flown on many government buildings and appears during celebrations of Independence Day.