The flag of Western Sahara (Arabic: علم الصحراء الغربية, also known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) uses a national flag consisting of a black, white and green horizontal tricolor charged with a red star and crescent in the center stripe and a red

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

at the hoist. It is used on Polisario-controlled areas, while the Moroccan flag is used on the rest of the occupied territory. The flag is a combination of the

Pan-Arab colors The Pan-Arab colors are black, white, green and red. Individually, each of the four Pan-Arab colors were intended to represent a certain aspect of the Arabs and their history. The black represents the Black Standard used by the Rashidun Calip ...

of black, green, white, and red, and the Islamic symbol of the star and crescent. On 27 February 1976 the flag was adopted as the official flag of the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (; SADR; also romanized with Saharawi; ar, الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية ' es, República Árabe Saharaui Democrática), also known as Western Sahara, is a ...

(SADR). It was slightly modified in June 1991. It is said to have been designed by

El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed ; 1948 – 9 June 1976) was a Sahrawi nationalist leader, co-founder and second Secretary-General of the Polisario Front. Youth and background El-Ouali was born in 1948 in a Sahrawi nomad encampment somewhere on the ''hammada'' desert plains ...

, the first president of the SADR.

Description

The flag is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. These are the

. There is a red star and crescent in the middle stripe. The flag is extremely similar to the flags of the Baath Party,

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, Palestine, the Kingdom of Iraq, and the Arab Federation all of which draw their inspiration from the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...

against Ottoman rule (1916–1918). Prior to being the flag of Palestine, it was the flag of the short-lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan. The

flag of the Arab Revolt The flag of the Arab Revolt, also known as the flag of Hejaz, was a flag used by the Arab nationalists during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and as the first flag of the Kingdom of Hejaz. History It has been sug ...

had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently (white on the bottom, rather than in the middle). Its design is based on that of the

Palestinian flag The flag of Palestine ( ar, علم فلسطين) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and ...

, which in turn was derived from the colors used in the

. The star and crescent are considered symbols of Islam, and can be seen on flags of other neighbouring Islamic countries such as

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and Mauritania.

History

In the late 19th-century, Western Sahara became a Spanish colony. During the Spanish province of Sahara, the only official flag was the flag of Spain, however, the maritime province of Villa Cisneros, which corresponds to the current territory of Western Sahara, was assigned a cornet flag that consisted of two stripes, blue the upper and yellow the lower. Like other demarcations of Spain, such as Cantabria, which created their symbols taking as references the flags of their maritime provinces, the Saharawi National Union Party created its flag based on that of the Maritime Province of Villa Cisneros, until its entry into the Polisario Front in a meeting held on October 12, 1975, with the leadership of said movement. After the

Madrid Accords The Madrid Accords, formally the Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara, was a treaty between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania setting out six principles which would end the Spanish presence in the territory of Spanish Sahara and arrange a t ...

of 1975,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

disengaged itself leaving the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, who split the territory, giving two thirds to the former. The

Polisario Front The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...

rejected this and declared in exile, the

(SADR) as the state representing an "independent" Western Sahara. In 1979, Mauritania signed a peace treaty with the Polisario Front, and Morocco annexed the part formerly controlled by Mauritania. A U.N.-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1991 between the two parties, but the sovereignty of the territory remains unresolved pending ongoing peace-talks.

Historical flags

File:Bandera del bando nacional 1936-1938.svg, Flag of Spain under Franco (1936–1938; Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939) File:Flag of Spain (1938 - 1945).svg, Flag of Spain under Franco (1938–1945; Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939) File:Flag of Spain 1945 1977.svg, Flag of Spain under Franco (1945–1975) and Juan Carlos I (1975–1977) File:Ifni-Sahara Maritime Province Registration Ensign (1946-1975).svg, Flag of the Maritime Province of

Villa Cisneros Dakhla ( ar, الداخلة, Berber: Eddaxla / ⴷⴷⴰⵅⵍⴰ, es, Dajla, Villa Cisneros) is a city in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco. It is the capital of the claimed Moroccan administrative re ...

(1946–1975) File:Flag of the Sahrawi National Union Party.svg, Flag of the

Sahrawi National Union Party The Sahrawi National Union Party, or ''Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui'' (PUNS), was a short-lived political party set up by Francoist Spain to rally indigenous support in its rebellious Spanish Sahara colony (presently Western Sahara). ...

(1974–1975) File:1959-2017 Flag of Mauritania.svg, The

flag of Mauritania The flag of Mauritania ( ar, علم موريتانيا, french: Drapeau de la Mauritanie) is a green field containing a gold star and crescent, with two red stripes at the top and bottom of the field. The original national flag was introduced und ...

was the official flag of

Tiris al-Gharbiyya Tiris al-Gharbiyya ( ar, تيرس الغربية, links=, lit=Western Tiris, translit=Tīris al-Ġarbiyya) was the name for the area of Western Sahara under Mauritanian control between 1975 and 1979. Background Mauritania annexed the southern t ...

, the part of Western Sahara annexed by Mauritania (1976–1979)

Moroccan regional flags (1976–1997)

In the 1976–1997 provincial division of Morocco, three provinces included parts of Western Sahara. The provinces were, however, reorganized in 1997. Consequently, some of these flags are no longer in official use. Flag of Laayoune province.svg, Flag of

Laayoune Laâyoune ( , also , ) or El Aaiún ( , ; Hassaniya Arabic: , romanized: ; ber, ⵍⵄⵢⵓⵏ, Leɛyun; ar, label= Literary Arabic, العيون, al-ʿUyūn/el-ʿUyūn, lit=The Springs) is the largest city of the disputed territory of We ...

province. Flag of Boujdour province (1976-1997).svg, Flag of

Boujdour Boujdour (or Bujdur, Bojador, ar, بوجدور) is a city in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, near Cape Bojador. It is de facto administered by Morocco, which includes it in the administrative division of the Southern Provinces. It is an ...

province. Flag of Dakhla province (1976-1997).svg, Flag of Dakhla province.

Unicode

The Flag of Western Sahara is represented as the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

emoji sequence and , making "🇪🇭".

References

External links

* {{nationalflags Sahrawi culture

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...