Flag of Somalia

Meaning and history of the flag of Somalia

The flag of Somalia is elegantly simple: a light sky-blue field with a single white five-pointed star at the center. It was designed by Mohammed Awale Liban and adopted on October 12, 1954, initially as the flag of the territory under Italian trusteeship, and it was retained after independence in 1960.

The sky blue originally represented the United Nations, in gratitude for its role in guiding the country toward independence, though it has since come to be reinterpreted as a symbol of the sky and the Indian Ocean along Somalia's coast. The white five-pointed star, known as the "Star of Somali Unity," carries deep meaning: each of its five points represents one of the historic regions inhabited by the Somali people, namely Italian Somaliland, British Somaliland, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya, and Djibouti. This irredentist symbolism has been a source of tension with neighboring countries throughout history.

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