La Libre.be reports: The Mauritanian National Assembly adopted Thursday a
bill of constitutional review including the abolition of the Senate and the
change of the national flag, found the AFP correspondent. The draft submitted by
the Government "has been adopted by the majority of 147 MPs present", "121 voted
in favour of the text, 19 against," said Mohamed Ould Beilil, president of the
National Assembly, dominated by the presidential party. The radical opposition,
represented by the Forum national unity and democracy (FNDU), which consisted of
15 Parties, voted against the Bill after leading a campaign against its
adoption. The text approved Thursday by the MPs, which amends the Constitution
in force since 1991, includes a deletion of the Senate, replaced by regional
councils, and a change of the national flag. Two red ribbons, symbolizing the
blood shed by the "martyrs of the resistance", will be added to the Crescent and
the yellow star on a green background on this flag already. Nozomi Kariyasu,
11 March 2017
According to
http://fr.ami.mr/Depeche-41902.html, the bill to approve the description of
the national flag (Projet de loi portant description du drapeau de la République
Islamique de Mauritanie) was addressed and approved by the Council of Ministers
on August 24th. Unfortunately, I cannot find a text of this law and the Official
Journal is not published online. Zachary Harden, 24 August 2017
The elongated crescent matches the first flag photos I sent in my previous
email. Also, I was messaged by FOTW member Kazutaka Nishiura and was informed
that PANTONE 18-1664 is indeed a real shade, listed as Fiery Red. However, they
did not specify if it is TCX or TPG but the document originally sent to me
matches
https://www.pantone.com/color-finder/18-1664-TCX more. Zachary Harden,
24 January 2018
29 September, 2016: National Inclusive Dialogue "dialogue national
inclusif, DNI" began at the capitol of Nouakchott . The government and
moderate opposition included, among trade unions, Mauritanians from abroad
and civic groups. Some opposition boycotted the meetings.
October 6th, 2016: The main party of Mauritania, the Union For the
Republic (UPR), proposed the change to the national flag with the red
stripes. The reasoning was to recognize "the efforts and sacrifices that the
people of Mauritania will keep consenting, to the price of their blood, to
defend their territory”.
October 20th, 2016; the DNI ends with an agreement by the government and
the opposition to call for a referendum, something that has been sought
since 2010 (not specifically about the flag but to more get rid of the
Senate and the two limit term and 75 age limit for the presidency). Slated
for end of 2016, then pushed back to early 2017.
November 2016: Opposition calls for boycott of the referendum, has felt
that the national symbols should not be modified.
February 28th, 2017: Debate on the constitutional changes begin in the
National Assembly, including the national flag.
March 8th, 2017: the proposed flag, in cloth, was presented to the
National Assembly by Defense Minister Diallo Mamadou Bati.
March 9th, 2017: the National Assembly voted 121-19 (with 147 present)
to change the national flag. (This vote also confirms the stripe ratio of
15/70/15, which I reported on in my previous email.)
March 13th, the Senate takes up the package for the flag, anthem and the
abolition of the Senate.
March 17th, 33 of 56 senators rejected the package.
March 22nd, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz calls for a referendum
June 8th, the Council of Ministers decided, at the request of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to reschedule the election
date for a better organization of the referendum. The new date chosen was
August 5th.
http://apanews.net/en/news/mauritania-postpones-referendum-on-constitution
July 21st to August 4th: CENI put up the ballot question online at
http://www.ceni.mr/spip.php?page=article&id_article=770 and makes the
flag change separate from the other changes to the constitution. Also the
allowed campaign period regarding the referendum.
August 5th: The vote. It was started at 0700 and ended at 1900. Turnout
more in rural areas than major cities and was also boycotted by different
groups and political parties.
August 6th: The results of the flag vote, among others, was released by
CENI at
http://fr.ami.mr/Depeche-41752.html. The official vote count was 85.61%
yes, 9.99% no and 4.4% neutral (682,247 valid ballots out of 1389092
possible voters, so 53.75% participation; 746655 ballots cast with 64,408
declared invalid). A breakdown by region is found at
http://fr.ami.mr/Depeche-41751.html
August 24th: The Bill to change the Mauritanian flag was approved on 24
August 2017 by the Council of Ministers, as Projet de loi n°136/17, portant
description du drapeau de la République Islamique de Mauritanie. It was
first discussed by a parliamentary commission on 5 October 2017 (http://fr.ami.mr/Depeche-42280.html).
A day before several news agencies in and around Mauritania published the
text. One held also a photograph of a part of the Bill:
http://sahel.tv/?p=7914. With the help
of Google Translate is says: “Article 1: The national symbol of the
Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a flag bearing a crescent moon and a
golden star on a green background, on either side of which is a red
rectangular strip. Article 2: The smallest measurement of science equals
two-thirds of the largest measure. The crescent and the star are located
in the centre of the flag so that the crescent is bent downward, and the
five-pointed star is horizontally located on the sides of the crescent.
The two rectangular bars are located on either side of the upper and lower
flag. In violation of the provisions of the first paragraph of this
article, measurements of banners and emblems of armed forces and security
forces shall be in square form. Article 3: The decree of the national
flag model and the different categories and uses of flags shall be
determined. Article 4: All previous provisions of the law shall be
repealed.”
AMI article says the flag will be raised for the first time on the
anniversary of independence - presumably, 28 November.
November 28th, 2017: In the southern city of Kaedi, President Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz was present at a ceremony to officially hoist the new
national flag, to the new national anthem. This coincided with the 57th
anniversary of independence.
January 23rd, 2018: The Embassy of Mauritania in Tokyo, Japan, released
a specification to Nozomi Kariyasu.
Zachary Harden, 14 March 2017, 7 August 2017; Jos Poels, 17
October 2017; Jonathan Dixon, 17 October 2017, 24 January 2018, Zachary Harden, 2
November 2020
A month later a new version started to be used, the green stripe became
lighter, and the shape of crescent changed. Then Government issued a document of
the final version of flag, describing the flag in details including the color
specifications. The shape of the crescent was slightly modified. Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024
The seal of the State bears a yellow crescent and star, and on its left side, it
bears in relief a yellow palm tree, and on the right side a millet plant with
curved ears. The whole is surrounded by a red circle in which is written from
above in a semicircle in Arabic by the font "Mauritania" the expression "Islamic
Republic of Mauritania".
From the bottom, completing the circle, the same
sentence in French ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA in capital letters.
The
whole is surrounded by a yellow circle of the same thickness as the inner yellow
circle surrounding the crescent and the star.
It was officially adopted
on 28 November 2017. Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024
image
by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024
The former seal of Mauritania adopted on 1 April 1959, was very similar, but red
circle was green. Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024
Visual Storm Warning Signals
According to the WMO pages Mauritania uses the international system for
Visual Storm Warning Signals, see more on Weather Flags Jan Mertens, 24 February 2008
![[Mauritania]](../images/m/mr.gif)
![[National flag and ensign]](../misc/oooooo.gif){kind=small}
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by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024![[Mauritania]](../images/m/mr_2017.gif)
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by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024![[Mauritania]](../images/m/mr_2018.gif)
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by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024![[Mauritania]](../images/m/mr).gif)
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by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024![[Mauritania]](../images/m/mr)1959.gif)
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by Zoltan Horvath, 7 July 2024