 | |
| Use | National flag   |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 4 April 1959 |
| Design | A vertical tricolour of green, gold and red. |
The national flag of Mali (drapeau national du Mali) is a tricolour with three equal vertical stripes. From the hoist (the place where the flagpole meets the flag) the colours are green, gold, and red, the pan-African colours. The flag of Mali is almost identical to the flag of Guinea, with the exception that the colours are in reverse order.
The current flag was adopted on 1 March 1961. The original flag was adopted on 4 April 1959, when Mali joined the Mali Federation. This flag was the same, except the golden stripe had a black kanaga , a shape of a squatter man with arms raised to the sky. The figure was removed due to the opposition, in a country whose population is 90% Muslim (95% Sunni 5% Shia), of Islamic fundamentalists [1] (see Aniconism in Islam, the belief against making pictures of the human figure). [2]
The green stands for fertility of the land, gold stands for purity and mineral wealth, and the red symbolizes the blood shed for independence from the French. [3]
 |
 | Green | Yellow | Red |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pantone | 2271c | 115c | 3546c |
| CMYK | 91-0-100-0 | 0-9-100-0 | 0-86-63-0 |
| RGB | 20-181-58 | 252-209-22 | 206-17-38 |
| Hexadecimal | #14B53A | #FCD116 | #CE1126 |
| Flag | Years of use | Ratio | Government | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | c. 1324 | Mali Empire (possible) | A reconstruction of the banner used by Musa I on the hajj, a possible historical flag of the Mali Empire. It consisted of a yellow rectangle centered on a red field. | |
 | 1880–1958 | 2:3 | French Sudan [a] | The French tricolor was used as the official flag of French Sudan for most of its history. |
 | 1958–1959 | 2:3 | A new flag was adopted in 1958, when French Sudan gained autonomy within the French Community. It consisted of the French tricolor with a black Kanaga centered on the white band. | |
 | 1959–1960 | 2:3 | Mali Federation | The flag initially adopted on Malian independence consisted of a vertical tricolor of green, gold, and red with a black Kanaga centered on the gold band. |
| 1960-1961 | Republic of Mali | |||
 | 1961–present | 2:3 | The current flag of Mali was adopted on 1 March 1961, removing the Kanaga featured on the previous flag. | |
Historical flag of the Massina Empire (1818–1862), located in the present-day regions of Mopti and Ségou 
Historical flag of the Wassoulou Empire (1878–1898), located in the Wassoulou region (part of present-day Mali, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire).
The national flag of Burkina Faso is formed by two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green, with a yellow five-pointed star resting in the center. The flag was adopted on 4 August 1984. The flag uses the Pan-African colours of Ethiopia, reflecting both a break with the country's colonial past and its unity with other African ex-colonies. The red is also said to symbolize the revolution and the green the abundance of agricultural and natural riches. The yellow star placed over the red and green stripes represents the guiding light of the revolution. The flag was adopted following the coup of 1983 which brought Thomas Sankara to power.
Pan-African colours is a term that may refer to two different sets of colours:
The national flag of Cameroon was adopted in its present form on 20 May 1975 after Cameroon became a unitary state. It is a vertical tricolour of green, red and yellow pales, with a yellow five-pointed star in its center. There is a wide variation in the size of the central star, although it is always contained within the inside stripe.
The national flag of Senegal is a tricolour consisting of three vertical green, yellow and red bands charged with a five-pointed green star at the centre. Adopted in 1960 to replace the flag of the Mali Federation, it has been the flag of the Republic of Senegal since the country gained independence that year. The present and previous flags were inspired by the French tricolour, which flew over Senegal until 1960.
The flag of Sudan was adopted on 20 May 1970 and consists of a horizontal red-white-black tricolour with a green triangle at the hoist. The flag is based on the Arab Liberation Flag of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, as are the flags of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine and formerly of the United Arab Republic, North Yemen, South Yemen, and the Libyan Arab Republic.
Gao, or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, 320 km (200 mi) east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley.
Azawad, or Azawagh, was a short-lived unrecognised state lasting between 2012 and 2013. Azawagh (Azawaɣ) is the generic Tuareg Berber name for all Tuareg Berber areas, especially the northern half of Mali and northern and western Niger. The Azawadi declaration of independence was declared unilaterally by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in 2012, after a Tuareg rebellion drove the Malian Armed Forces from the region.
Kidal is a town and commune in the desert region of northern Mali. The town lies 285 km (177 mi) northeast of Gao and is the capital of the Kidal Cercle and the Kidal Region. The commune has an area of about 9,910 km2 (3,830 sq mi) and includes the town of Kidal and 31 other settlements.
A triband is a type of flag which consists of three stripes arranged to form a flag. These stripes may be two or three colours, and may have an emblem in the middle stripe. All tricolour flags are tribands, but not all tribands are tricolour flags, which requires three unique colours.
Wassoulou, sometimes spelled Wassulu, Wassalou, or Ouassalou, is a cultural area and historical region surrounding the point where the borders of Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea meet. Home to about 160,000 people, it is bordered by the Niger River to the northwest, and by the Sankarani River to the east. Inhabitants are known as Wassulu, Wassulunka or Wassulunke.
Kidal Region the eighth administrative region of Mali, covering 151,450 square kilometres or 58,480 square miles. This area was formerly part of Gao Region, but was created as a separate region in 1991. It is located in the north of the country, within the territory which the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad proclaimed to be the independent nation-state of Azawad on 6 April 2012. This independence has not been recognized by any country or international organization. It was under the control of different armed movements such as the Ansar Dine and MNLA until January 2013, when French forces liberated the region. The Region's administrative capital is the town of Kidal.
Articles related to Mali include:
The flag of South Sudan was adopted following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War. A different version of the flag was previously used as the flag of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. The flag of South Sudan predates the country, as the flag was adopted in 2005, while the country became independent in 2011.
Military aircraft insignia are insignia applied to military aircraft to visually identify the nation or branch of military service to which the aircraft belong. Many insignia are in the form of a circular roundel or modified roundel; other shapes such as stars, crosses, squares, or triangles are also used. Insignia are often displayed on the sides of the fuselage, the upper and lower surfaces of the wings, as well as on the fin or rudder of an aircraft, although considerable variation can be found amongst different air arms and within specific air arms over time.
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad or the Azawad National Liberation Movement, formerly the National Movement of Azawad, is a militant organization based in northern Mali.
Ansar Dine, meaning "helpers of the religion" (Islam) and also known as Ansar al-Din, was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ansar Dine sought to impose absolute sharia across Mali. The group took over the city of Timbuktu in 2012, which prompted the French-led intervention, Operation Serval.
Iyad Ag Ghaly, also known as Abū al-Faḍl, is a Tuareg Islamist militant from Mali's Kidal Region. He has been active in Tuareg rebellions against the Malian government since the 1980s – particularly in the early 1990s. In 1988, he founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. In the latest episode of the Tuareg upheavals in 2012, he featured as the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine.
The flag of the State of Azawad, an unrecognized state that declared independence from Mali on 6 April 2012, was a horizontal green-red-black tricolour with a yellow triangle at the hoist. The symbolism behind colours to the Azawadi people are manifold as described by Moussa Ag Assarid: yellow representing the Sahara desert, black representing the arduous history of the Tuaregs connected to anti-colonial struggle in their many uprisings as well as their difficult way of life, red representing the blood of the Azawadi martyrs and green which represents the scant vegetation in its Saharan and Sahelian regions. It is the same as the flag of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. A popular variation of the flag includes a red "yaz" or "ⵣ" letter in Tifinagh that serves as a universal symbol of the Amazigh people within its yellow hoist. This version has a more specific reference to the Tuareg demographic in Azawad versus the Fulani, Songhai and Mauritanian ethnicities present.
The Battle of Gao was fought between the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the Islamist Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), along with its ally Ansar Dine, in Gao between 26–28 June 2012. By the 28 June, Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, the three biggest cities in the disputed secessionist region of Azawad within what is recognised as Malian territory, were under the control of Ansar Dine and its Islamist allies.
The Azawad conflict has been a conflict in Northern Mali between the MNLA, a Tuareg nationalist group, and a coalition of Islamist groups. The conflict began when Northern Mali declared itself independent from the government, creating the unrecognized state of Azawad. The Islamists and MNLA formed an alliance in combatting the Malian government. An internal conflict sprung up over the imposing of sharia law in the new state and the MNLA distancing itself from the coalition to a democratic state. Islamists gained popularity amongst anti-Tuareg tribes which helped them overthrow MNLA authority in Gao. Both sides clashed repeatedly leading to the Battle of Gao, where the MNLA were driven from the North's two main cities, Gao and Timbuktu. The MNLA soon lost all of its strongholds in the North in a matter of months. They went into hiding secretly gaining support and strength. The beginning of 2013 led to the start of the French intervention in Mali that ousted the Islamists from the North's cities and brought back Malian authority. The MNLA supported the French and Chadian forces in military operations against Islamists' sanctuaries in the mountains. The MNLA recaptured several important towns in the Kidal Region but refused to disarm or hand them over to the Malian government. A series of Islamist-sponsored terror attacks plagued MNLA forces for siding with the French. Checkpoints and bases were targeted with suicide bombings that targeted MNLA members. A peace deal was reached with the Malian army in June that let the army transverse freely in MNLA-occupied zones that were under Malian jurisdiction. Ethnic violence sprung over the murder of a Tuareg Government officer's family. The MNLA responded by harassing and murdering Fulani civilians, who constitute a majority of Islamist rebels. The Islamists stepped up their attacks in one such instance massacring 30 Tuareg merchants. The MNLA has since been battling Islamists.
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