Africa

Flag of Somalia

Somalia occupies the Horn of Africa and has the longest coastline in mainland Africa, stretching nearly 3,300 kilometres. Despite having a common language, culture, and religion shared across its population — unusual in a region of great ethnic diversity — Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991 and has experienced prolonged clan-based conflict. Somali culture has a rich tradition of poetry, and the country is sometimes called a 'nation of poets.'

CapitalMogadishu
RegionAfrica
Current flag since1954
Main coloursBlue, White
Populationabout 18 million
Areaabout 638,000 km²
Flags in history8

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Somalia means

The light blue was inspired by the flag of the United Nations, which oversaw Somalia's path to independence. The white Star of Unity has five points for the five areas where Somali people live: former Italian Somaliland, former British Somaliland, the Ogaden in Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti. Adopted in 1954, it became the national flag in 1960.

How to recognise it

Light blue field with a white five-pointed star in the centre.

Did you know?

The Somali coastline is the longest on the African mainland at about 3,333 km.

Easily confused with

Somalia's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

Djibouti

Flag history of Somalia

Every flag that has flown over Somalia, from today back through time.

1954–present

Flag of Somalia

Designed by Mohammed Awale Liban and adopted in 1954 during the UN trusteeship, with a light-blue field honoring the UN and a white Star of Unity for the five regions inhabited by ethnic Somalis.

1889–1960

Italian Somaliland

The south was Italian Somaliland from 1889, flying the Italian flag (and briefly part of Mussolini's Italian East Africa). After WWII it returned to Italy as a UN trust territory, where the modern star flag was born in 1954. At independence in 1960 it united with the separate British Somaliland in the north to form Somalia — the two colonial legacies the white five-pointed Star of Unity was meant to bind together.

1878–1925

Sultanate of Hobyo

A central Somali sultanate carved out by Yusuf Ali Kenadid, later an Italian protectorate.

1750–1910

Sultanate of the Geledi

A southern Somali sultanate that dominated the trade of the Jubba and Shebelle river valleys.

1750–1884

Isaaq Sultanate

A Somali sultanate in the northwest (modern Somaliland) before the British protectorate.

1600–1927

Majeerteen Sultanate

A northeastern Somali sultanate (Migiurtinia) that controlled the Horn's coast until the Italians subdued it.

1415–1577

Adal Sultanate

A Muslim sultanate of the Horn that, under Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, nearly conquered Christian Ethiopia in the 16th century.

1100–1500

Sultanate of Mogadishu

A medieval Somali city-sultanate, one of the wealthiest trading ports on the Indian Ocean's Swahili coast.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Somalia.

1896–1920

Dervish State

The banner of the Dervish movement led by Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, who resisted British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces in the Somali interior for over two decades.

1415–1577

Sultanate of Adal

A powerful medieval Muslim sultanate of the Horn of Africa that waged a devastating 16th-century war against the Christian Ethiopian Empire.

1998–present

Jubaland

A self-declared then federal region of southern Somalia around the Jubba River, its blue flag with a white star and green-and-gold canton flown amid years of conflict over the port of Kismayo.

1998–present

Puntland

Named for the ancient 'Land of Punt', this northeastern Somali state declared autonomy in 1998 — seeking a federal Somalia rather than full independence like neighbouring Somaliland.

2006–present

Galmudug

A central Somali state whose name blends the Galguduud and Mudug regions it straddles, formed during the fragmentation of Somalia's central government in the mid-2000s.

1991–present

Somaliland

The former British Somaliland reasserted independence in 1991 with a green-white-red flag bearing the Islamic shahada. Though stable and democratic, it remains unrecognized by any UN member state.

1903–1950

British Somaliland

The British protectorate on the Gulf of Aden flew a blue ensign with a kudu antelope badge. It briefly became independent in 1960 before uniting with Italian Somalia to form Somalia.