Flag of Chad

What the flag of Chad looks like

The national flag of Chad has three vertical bands of equal width: blue at the hoist (the side nearest the pole), yellow in the middle and red at the fly. The proportions are 2:3. There is no coat of arms, star or other symbol, so the design relies entirely on the three colors.

The blue is a deep indigo, the yellow is a strong golden shade and the red is a slightly cool, crimson-leaning red. These shades matter, because they are the main visual difference between Chad's flag and the flags that resemble it. Chad's blue is darker than the cobalt blue of Romania's tricolor.

The flag is simple to draw and to recognize at a distance. Its small emoji version, the Chad flag emoji, shows the same three bands. You can find ready-made files on the Chad flag download page.

Chad flag meaning and symbolism

The colors of the flag of Chad are usually explained like this:

• Blue stands for the sky and for water, and for hope. It is also said to refer to the south of the country, where rivers feed the more fertile land.
• Yellow represents the sun and the sands of the desert in the north of the country.
• Red stands for progress, unity and the readiness to sacrifice for the nation.

Chad's constitution describes the flag and its three colors but does not fix an official meaning for each, so the readings above are the traditional ones taught in the country. Yellow and red also appear among the Pan-African colors used by many African states, and blue takes the place that green holds on most of those flags.

History of the Chad flag

The current flag was adopted on 6 November 1959, while the territory was still an autonomous republic within the French Community. Chad became fully independent from France on 11 August 1960 and kept the flag. Before that, Chad was part of French Equatorial Africa, and the French tricolor was the flag of the colony.

The three-band vertical layout follows the French tricolor, which inspired many flags in former French territories. The first choice for Chad is reported to have been green, yellow and red, the colors used by several African states. Blue was substituted for green so that the flag would not be confused with the flag of Mali and others in the region that used the same Pan-African set. The change gave Chad a flag of its own and linked it to the French model through the blue and red.

The flag has not been changed since 1959, which makes it one of the more stable national flags in Central Africa.

Chad flag vs Romania flag

The flags of Chad and Romania are both vertical blue, yellow and red tricolors with the same proportions. The only practical difference is the shade of the blue: it is indigo on the Chadian flag and a lighter cobalt on the Romanian flag. Official specifications for Romania's flag also describe a slightly different yellow and red, but in practice the two are hard to tell apart on a printed or waving flag.

The resemblance is a coincidence of history, not a copy. Romanian tricolors in blue, yellow and red were in use in the 19th century, and the colors came from the historic principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Chad's flag came from the French tricolor with a blue substitute for green. Romania's flag had a communist coat of arms in the center from 1948 until the revolution of 1989, which set it apart from Chad's for several decades. When the emblem was cut out in 1989, the two flags became almost identical.

Chad is reported to have raised the similarity with the United Nations in 2004. Nothing changed, and both countries still use their flags. Andorra and Moldova also use the same three colors in vertical bands, but both carry a coat of arms in the middle.