Flag of Chad

Description

The flag of Chad is a vertical tricolour consisting (left to right) of a blue, a gold and a red column. These were intended to be a combination of the colours of blue, white and red as seen on the Flag of France with the Pan-African colours of green, yellow and red. Furthermore, the blue represents the sky and hope; the gold is the sun and desert, and the red signifies the bloodshed over independence.

The flag was adopted by law #59/13 for the autonomous republic and retained on independence in 1960, and in the constitution of 1962. Despite many political upheavals within Chad since independence, the flag has not been changed. This may be because the flag is not associated with any of the main power rivals within Chad, which had no sense of national identity before independence, and little after independence.

Similarity with Romanian flag

The flag of Chad is almost identical to Romania's flag, but with a darker tint of blue. During their Communist-era of the second half of the 20th Century, Romania's flag featured an insignia in the middle of the flag on top of the tricolour. But in 1989, when the Communist government was overthrown and the insignia was removed, reverting Romania's flag back to the previous version which matched the one which had been adopted by Chad in the meanwhile.

The issue of Romania and Chad sharing similar flags has concerned the Chadian government on occasion, with them requesting in 2004 that the United Nations should consider it an issue. In response, the Romanian President Ion Iliescu stating to the media, "The tricolour belongs to us. We will not give up the tricolour".