Flag of South Sudan

What the flag of South Sudan looks like

The flag of South Sudan has a width-to-height ratio of 1:2. It has three wide horizontal bands: black at the top, red in the middle and green at the bottom. A thin white stripe lies between black and red and between red and green. At the hoist is a blue isosceles triangle with its point toward the fly and a gold five-pointed star inside it, with one point straight up.

The layout is close to the flag of Kenya, which also uses black, red and green with white stripes. It also shares a triangle at the hoist with the flag of Sudan, which is why the two are sometimes confused. The differences are easy to spot: Sudan has red, white and black bands with a green triangle, and South Sudan has a blue triangle with a star.

South Sudan flag meaning and symbolism

The meanings are those given by the government and are widely repeated, though they are not a legal formula. Black stands for the people of South Sudan. Red stands for the blood shed during the struggle for freedom. Green stands for the land, its fertility and its natural wealth. White stands for peace. The blue triangle represents the waters of the Nile, the river that runs through the country and is a source of life. The gold star stands for unity among the states of the country and is often called a guiding light.

Many African flags use black, red and green in the Pan-African tradition, and South Sudan's choice of colors places it in that family.

History of the South Sudan flag

The design began as the flag of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A), which fought the Sudanese government in the Second Sudanese Civil War, from 1983 to 2005. Before that, South Sudan had been part of Sudan, which became independent in 1956 after a joint British and Egyptian rule.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended the war and created an autonomous region called Southern Sudan, which began using the SPLM/A flag as its own. In January 2011 the region voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum. The country became independent on 9 July 2011, and the flag was raised as the national flag that day. It has not changed since then.

South Sudan flag vs Sudan flag

Sudan and South Sudan separated in 2011 after decades of conflict and a referendum, and their flags reflect two different traditions. Sudan uses the Pan-Arab colors of red, white, black and green, while South Sudan uses a pan-African set with blue and gold added. See the flags of the world for more comparisons.