Flag of Somalia

What the flag means

The 2012 Provisional Constitution describes the flag without explaining it. Its designer, Mohammed Awale Liban, said the blue honoured the United Nations, which oversaw the territory on its way to independence. The five points of the star are the five areas where Somalis live: former Italian Somalia, British Somaliland, Djibouti, the Somali region of Ethiopia and north-eastern Kenya.

History

During the UN trusteeship under Italian administration, the Somali Youth League pressed for a national flag. When the territorial council debated it in 1954, rival parties rejected the League's own party flag. Liban, a Somali scholar, proposed a new design, and the council approved it on 12 October 1954. It went on to become the flag of the Somali Republic in 1960.

Public display of the Somali flag has been banned since 1991 in Somaliland, which declared independence that year.

Earlier flags of Somalia

1. 1889–1941Flag of Italy, used in the colony of Italian Somaliland
2. 1941–1950British Union Flag, used during the British occupation

Flags of Somalia's neighbours

• Djibouti
• Ethiopia
• Kenya