Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Flags

Which countries have red, blue, green and yellow flags?

• Mauritius: four equal horizontal stripes of red, blue, yellow and green. It is the simplest design here.
• Ethiopia: green, yellow and red horizontal stripes, with a blue disc and a yellow star in the center.
• Eritrea: a red triangle at the hoist with a gold olive wreath, a green band above and a blue band below.
• New Caledonia: the Kanak flag, which has blue, red and green stripes and a yellow disc with a black emblem. It flies beside the French tricolor.

Flags that also contain these colors with white or black are the Central African Republic, Comoros, Seychelles and South Africa.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are neighbors and share a history, so their flags are close. Eritrea's is built on a triangle, while Ethiopia's is three stripes with a medallion.

Comoros has four horizontal stripes of yellow, white, red and blue with a green triangle holding a white crescent and four stars. Seychelles fans five colors out from the lower hoist: blue, yellow, red, white and green. See the full color index for more.

What do the colors mean?

On the flag of Mauritius, red represents the struggle for independence, blue the Indian Ocean, yellow the new light of independence and green the island's vegetation. It is sometimes called the Four Bands, or Quatre Bandes in French.

Ethiopia's green, yellow and red became the Pan-African colors, copied by many African countries after independence. The central blue disc stands for peace, and the star for unity of the nations and peoples.

Eritrea's flag uses red for the blood shed in the independence struggle, green for agriculture, blue for the sea, and an olive wreath in gold. The Kanak flag in New Caledonia has blue for the sky and sea, red for the struggle and the blood of the Kanak people, and green for the land, with a yellow sun at the center.