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Western Sahara

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

by Mark Sensen
Flag adopted 27 February 1976, state emblem adopted 1976, modified June 1991 (by the removal of hammer).

See also:

Kingdom of Hejaz

When the Spanish pulled out of this territory in 1976, it was partitioned between Morocco, which took the larger part, and Mauritania. Local nationalists of the POLISARIO movement proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 1976.

The flag of the SADR follows the pan-Arab colours and is similar to the PLO flag (now the flag of the Palestine Authority, ed.), with the addition of a crescent and star on the white stripe.

POLISARIO was originally closely aligned with the Algerian regime. So it is quite likely that the SADR flag's star and crescent would be like that of the Algerian flag which would certainly be more like the one you describe.
Stuart Notholt, 9 February 1996

I vaguely remember a flag for the Spanish possessions in Northern Africa: identical in design to the Moroccan flag, but colours white pentagram on dark green (or was that the flag of the Free City of Tangier?).
Harald Müller, 12 February 1996

The POLISARIO flag and the RASD flag are the same. Three movements exist in the country: one by the pro-Maroc sheiks (10%), another by the pro-Ould Dada (Mauretania) people (0,1%), both with wellknown flags. The third was the Pro-Algerian Polisario (90%). When Polisario proclaimed the RASD their own flag was hoisted.

A movement named MOREHOB (Movimiento revolucionario de los Hombres Azules- Revolutionary Movement from the Blue men) was a Tuareg based organization with less influence in Western Sahara (MOREHOB fight also in Mauretania, Mali, Niger and Algeria). The flag is white with blue emblem.

Jaume Ollé, 23 August 1998

Formerly, this territory was a spanish colony called, according to a (portuguese) 1965 atlas I own, African Province of the Sahara.
Jorge Candeias, 16 November 1999

Spanish Sahara was before an unified province divided in two ones,
the Saguiat el-Hamra (the SA of poliSArio... and the eH of the ISO country code)
and Rio de Oro (the RIO). The POLI means POR la LIbercaion (for the liberation).
Spanish Sahara was also knwon as Spanish West Africa, but that one inclued other bits like Ifni (to Morocco in 1969), Cape Juby (the southernmost part of Morocco not including WS) and La Aguera.
JF Blanc, 16 November 1999

Polisario Flag was first time party flag. When spanish troops give the control of the country to the marocain invaders ("Marcha verde") because Franco is near the death, Polisario proclaimed 27 February the RASD and hoisted same flag (like FLNA and Alger). In this era RASD should be a single party country and logically the identification between party symbol and state symbol is total. More that half Africa (and many others countries in the world) recognized RASD that was accepted in the African Union Organization.
RASD-POLISARIO flag was very popular and never was proposed a change.
The flag with sahara map in center is (I believe) fictional.
Later a coup in Mauretania reversed Ould Dada and the power is for progresist officiers that recognized RASD and transfered their zone to RASD, but was occuped by Morocco.
Jaume Ollé , 20 November 1999