Flag of the Republic of the Congo
A flag divided diagonally by a yellow band, with a green triangle on the side of the pole and a red one on the other, as Congo’s constitution describes it. The constitution gives no meanings; Larousse explains the green as the forest, the yellow as the savanna and the red as the blood shed by Congolese martyrs.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Article 3 of the constitution of 2015 says the national emblem is the tricolour flag, green, yellow and red: a rectangle made of two right-angled triangles, green and red, separated by a diagonal yellow band, with the green on the side of the pole. It leaves the dimensions, the shades of the colours and the other details to law. Larousse says the flag was adopted at independence in 1960, dropped in 1969 and officially taken up again in 1992.
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Telling it from the other Congo’s flag
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s flag also has a diagonal band, but its field is sky blue, its band is red with thin yellow edges, and it has a yellow star in the top corner by the pole. The Republic of the Congo’s band is yellow, between a green triangle and a red one, and it has no star.
Read next
- Next in African flagsFlag of the Democratic Republic of the CongoA sky-blue flag with a yellow star in the top corner by the pole, crossed diagonally by a red band with thin yellow edges, as the constitution describes it. The Presidency of the Republic says the sky blue stands for peace, the red band for the blood of the martyrs and the yellow for the country’s wealth, and that the star is for a united country with a bright future.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of JordanJordan’s flag has three equal stripes of black, white and green and a red triangle at the pole holding a white seven-pointed star. Al-Mamlaka, Jordan’s public broadcaster, explains the stripes as the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates, the red triangle as the Hashemite family, and the seven points of the star as the seven verses of the Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Quran.
More african flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines, squares and rectangles or triangles.
Sources
- Congo (Republic of the) 2015 Constitution, Constitution of the Republic of the Congo of 2015, Article 3 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 3
- Drapeau du Congo (Larousse), Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne, image entry with caption, Larousse, Caption
- Congo (Democratic Republic of the) 2005 (rev. 2011) Constitution, Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (rev. 2011), Article 1 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 1
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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