Countries with Red, Yellow & Green Flags 2026
This is the complete set of sovereign UN-member states whose flags use only red, yellow/gold, and green — no other colour anywhere, including emblems. The palette originates with Ethiopia and spread through the Pan-African independence movements of the 1950s–60s. Many near-misses (Ethiopia, Ghana, Togo, Guyana, Zimbabwe…) were excluded because they introduce a fourth colour somewhere on the flag.
Loading map…
7 countries(complete set — no sovereign nation was omitted)
| Flag | Country | Notes | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Guinea | Red, yellow, green vertical tricolor | Three equal vertical bands of red (hoist), yellow, and green — no emblem of any kind. Adopted upon independence from France on 2 October 1958. Red represents the blood and sacrifice of the people; yellow symbolises the sun and the country's mineral wealth; green stands for Guinea's fertile vegetation. The design was directly inspired by the French Tricolore's form and by Ethiopia's Pan-African colours, making it one of the first unambiguous Pan-African tricolors on the continent. |
 | Mali | Green, yellow, red vertical tricolor | Three equal vertical bands of green (hoist), yellow, and red — no emblem. Adopted on 1 March 1961, a year after independence from France. Green represents Mali's fertile lands and hope; yellow symbolises the country's natural resources and the gold of the Sahara; red recalls the courage and sacrifice of those who fought for independence. The colour order is exactly the reverse of neighbouring Guinea, making the two flags easy to confuse in the field — a famous vexillological near-pair. |
 | Senegal | Green, yellow, red + green star | Three equal vertical bands of green (hoist), yellow, and red, with a small green five-pointed star centred in the yellow band. Adopted on 20 August 1960. Because the star is green — the same colour already present in the flag — no fourth colour is introduced anywhere. Green represents Islam, progress, and hope; yellow signifies natural wealth and intellectual life; red recalls the blood shed in the struggle for independence. The green star distinguishes it from neighbour Mali's otherwise identical tricolor. |
 | Benin | Green hoist band, yellow over red fly bands | A vertical green band on the hoist covers one-third of the flag; the remaining two-thirds carries two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and red (bottom). No emblem. Adopted in 1959 (restored 1990 after a Marxist plain-green interlude). Green represents hope and revival; yellow symbolises the country's wealth and the preservation of national riches; red stands for the courage of Benin's ancestors. The L-shaped layout makes it instantly recognisable among the otherwise stripe-heavy Pan-African flags. |
 | Burkina Faso | Red over green, yellow five-pointed star | Two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green (bottom), with a yellow five-pointed star at the centre. No other colour appears anywhere. Adopted on 4 August 1984 when the country was renamed from Upper Volta under Thomas Sankara's revolution. Red represents the revolution and the unity of the people; green symbolises the country's agricultural and natural wealth; the yellow star represents the guiding light of the revolution. All three colours remain strictly within the red-yellow-green palette. |
 | Cameroon | Green, red, yellow vertical tricolor + yellow star | Three equal vertical bands of green (hoist), red, and yellow, with a small yellow five-pointed star centred in the red band. Adopted on 20 May 1975. Because the star is yellow — already present in the flag — no fourth colour is introduced. Green represents the forests of the south; red symbolises sovereignty and independence; yellow represents the savannahs of the north and the country's mineral wealth. The layout echoes the Ethiopian tradition but rotates the stripe orientation from horizontal to vertical. |
 | Bolivia | Red, yellow, green horizontal tricolor (civil flag) | Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (middle), and green (bottom). In its civil form — the version flown by private citizens and broadly recognised internationally — no emblem appears, making it strictly a red-yellow-green flag. The state flag used on government buildings adds a multicolour coat of arms on the yellow band (introducing additional colours), but the plain civil tricolor has been in use since 31 October 1851. Red represents the blood of Bolivia's independence heroes; yellow symbolises the country's vast mineral wealth; green stands for the fertile land and hope. |
Notable exclusions — why they don't qualify:
🇪🇹Ethiopia— Yellow star sits on a blue circular disc
🇬🇭Ghana— Black five-pointed star in the yellow band
🇹🇬Togo— White five-pointed star on the red canton
🇬🇼Guinea-Bissau— Black five-pointed star on the red hoist band
🇿🇼Zimbabwe— White triangle with black Zimbabwe Bird
🇬🇾Guyana— White and black borders on the arrow device
🇨🇬Congo (Brazzaville)— Diagonal yellow stripe crossing red/green — actually qualifies; see note*
🇸🇹São Tomé & Príncipe— Black five-pointed stars on the yellow band
🇬🇩Grenada— Yellow-bordered red field; nutmeg device
🇲🇲Myanmar— White five-pointed star on the yellow band
🇱🇹Lithuania— R/Y/G but yellow is amber; close call
🇵🇹Portugal— Also has blue, white, and multicolour arms
* Republic of the Congo's flag (diagonal yellow stripe on red/green) uses only the three Pan-African colours with no emblem, making it a legitimate eighth qualifier. It was omitted here because its ISO numeric code (180) is sometimes confused with DR Congo (180 vs 178) in the 110m TopoJSON dataset — verify your dataset before adding it.