 | |
| علم البوليساريو Bandera del Polisario ('Flag ofPolisario') | |
| Use | National flag  |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 1:2[1] |
| Adopted | 27 February 1976; 49 years ago (1976-02-27) |
| Design | A black, white, and green horizontaltricolour charged with a redstar and crescent in the centre stripe and a redchevron at the hoist |
| Designed by | El Uali Mustafá Sayed |
Thenational flag ofWestern Sahara or the flag of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic uses a national flag consisting of a black, white and green horizontaltricolor charged with a redstar and crescent in the center stripe and a redchevron at the hoist. It is used onSADR-controlled areas, while theMoroccan flag is used on theoccupied parts ofWestern Sahara.
The flag is a combination of thePan-Arab colors of black, green, white, and red, and theIslamic symbol of thestar and crescent. On 27 February 1976 the flag was adopted as the official flag of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). It is said to have been designed byEl Uali Mustafá Sayed, the first president of the SADR.
Theflag is atricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. These are thePan-Arab colors. There is a red star and crescent in the middle stripe.
The flag is similar to the flags of theBa'ath Party,Jordan,Palestine, theKingdom of Iraq, and theArab Federation all of which draw their inspiration from theArab Revolt againstOttoman rule (1916–1918). Prior to being the flag of Palestine, it was the flag of the short-livedArab Federation of Iraq and Jordan. Theflag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colors were arranged differently (white on the bottom, rather than in the middle).
Its design is based on that of thePalestinian flag,[2] which in turn was derived from the colors used in theArab Revolt. The star and crescent are considered symbols of Islam, and can be seen on flags of other neighboring Muslim-majority countries such asAlgeria andMauritania.
The green of the flag represents the Sahrawi people's hope of one day returning to their lands and the white represents peace and the purity of the Sahrawi, while the black represents anguish and grief for the martyrs and the red represents the blood spilled by all the martyrs.[3] The star represents the SADR being an Arab republic, while the crescent represents the Sahrawi Republic being a Muslim country.[4]
In the late 19th-century Western Sahara became aSpanish colony.
During theSpanish province of Sahara, the only official flag was the flag of Spain, however, the maritime province ofVilla 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 theMadrid Accords of 1975, Spain disengaged itself leaving the territory to Morocco andMauritania, who split the territory, giving two-thirds to the former. ThePolisario Front rejected this and declared in exile, theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as the state representing an "independent" Western Sahara.[5]
In 1979, Mauritania signed a Peace Treaty with the Polisario Front, and Morocco annexed the part formerly controlled by Mauritania.
An U.N.-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1991 between the two parties, but the sovereignty of the territory remains unresolved pending ongoing peace-talks.[5]
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Flag ofSpain under Franco (1936–1938; Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939).svg)
Flag of Spain under Franco (1938–1945; Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939).svg)
Flag of Spain under Franco (1945–1975) andJuan Carlos I (1975–1977)![Flag of the Maritime Province of Villa Cisneros (1946–1975)[6]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aIfni-Sahara_Maritime_Province_Registration_Ensign_(1946-1975).svg)
Flag of theSahrawi National Union Party (1974–1975).svg)
Theflag of Mauritania was the official flag ofTiris al-Gharbiyya, the part of Western Sahara annexed byMauritania (1976–1979)In the 1976–1997provincial 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.[7]
The flag of Western Sahara is represented as theUnicodeemoji sequenceU+1F1EA 🇪REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER E andU+1F1ED 🇭REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER H, making "🇪🇭".[8]
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