Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Meaning and history of the flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo shows a sky-blue field crossed by a diagonal red stripe edged in yellow, running from the lower left corner to the upper right. A five-pointed yellow star sits in the upper left corner. The sky blue symbolizes peace, the red represents the blood of the nation's martyrs, the yellow embodies the country's wealth, and the star stands for unity and the nation's bright future.

This flag was adopted in 2006 under the new constitution, reviving a design very similar to the one the country used between 1963 and 1971, in the period following independence from Belgium. The country has changed flags many times over the years, mirroring its turbulent political history: from the blue flag with a golden star of the Congo Free State, to the green flag with a torch used under Mobutu's Zaire, to the current design. The edged diagonal stripe is an uncommon feature in flag design that makes this flag easy to recognize.

You can view the flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full the Democratic Republic of the Congo profile, its map, or the current local time in Kinshasa.