Flag: Cameroon Emoji

The flag of Cameroon. A vertical tricolor of green, red, yellow with a yellow five-pointed star centered on the red band. Ratio 2:3. Current form adopted May 20, 1975 under President Ahmadou Ahidjo, when the Federal Republic of Cameroon became the unitary United Republic of Cameroon.

The country has a striking colonial history for a flag. Originally the German Kamerun protectorate, it was split after World War I between French and British mandates. At independence on January 1, 1960, French-mandated Cameroun adopted the first green-red-yellow tricolor, making Cameroon the first African country to use the pan-African palette after Ethiopia. When the British Southern Cameroons joined through the 1961 plebiscite, two gold stars were added to the green band to represent the federation of the two halves. In 1975, with the unitary state replacing the federation, the two stars were merged into a single 'star of unity' centered on the red band.

The colors carry both pan-African and Cameroonian-specific meanings: green for the lush southern rainforests, red for unity and the blood of independence, yellow for the sun and the Sahelian north. The central star marks the unity of 250-plus ethnic groups, two official languages (French and English), and two major colonial legacies into one state.

🇨🇲 is one of the most visible sub-Saharan African flag emojis globally, driven by football (the Indomitable Lions are one of Africa's most decorated teams), music (makossa, bikutsi, and more recently Afrobeats crossovers), and a 1-million-strong diaspora concentrated in France. The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1E8U+1F1E8 (C) + U+1F1F2U+1F1F2 (M). Added in Emoji 2.0 (2015). Platforms without flag support fall back to the letters CMCM.

The Indomitable Lions carry the heaviest social load. Cameroon's national football team is one of the continent's most successful, with five AFCON titles (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2017) and eight World Cup appearances, more than any other African country. The 1990 World Cup quarter-final run, with 38-year-old Roger Milla's corner-flag dance after each goal, made Cameroon the first African team to reach a World Cup quarter-final and remains a reference point for African football. Samuel Eto'o, FECAFOOT president since 2021 and four-time African Footballer of the Year, is still one of the most-followed African sporting figures on Instagram.

2022 World Cup win over Brazil. On December 2, 2022, Cameroon's Vincent Aboubakar scored a 92nd-minute winner against Brazil at Lusail. Brazil's first ever World Cup defeat against an African team. 🇨🇲 trended globally for days.

AFCON 2021 hosting. Cameroon hosted the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in January and February 2022, the country's second time (after 1972). The tournament generated sustained 🇨🇲 posting, though it was also marred by the Olembe Stadium stampede that killed eight people at the Cameroon-Comoros match.

Makossa and bikutsi music. Manu Dibango's 1972 Soul Makossa was one of the earliest African pop crossover hits; Michael Jackson sampled it (uncredited) on Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', later settled out of court. Newer artists like Stanley Enow, Jovi), and Mr. Leo keep Cameroonian Afrobeats in rotation on global playlists.

Diaspora. Around 1 million Cameroonians live abroad, concentrated in France (Paris's 18th and 19th arrondissements, Montreuil, Lyon), followed by the US (Dallas, Houston, Washington DC), the UK, Belgium, and Germany. Franco-Cameroonian hip-hop (Magic System-era features, Gims collaborations) keeps 🇨🇲 circulating on French-language feeds. Cameroonian communities run three of the biggest African Pentecostal church networks in Europe.

News cycle weight. Coverage of the Anglophone Crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions since 2017, Boko Haram incursions in the Far North, and President Paul Biya's 43-year tenure (the world's longest-serving non-royal head of state) regularly put 🇨🇲 on news feeds.

• 🏙️
  Capital: Yaoundé (3.85°N, 11.50°E); largest city is Douala on the coast
• 👥
  Population: ~28.6 million (2025)
• 🗺️
  Area: 475,442 km²; roughly the size of Sweden or California
• 💵
  Currency: Central African CFA franc (XAF, FCFA); pegged 655.957 to 1 EUR
• 🗣️
  Languages: French and English (both official, a unique combination in Africa); Fulfulde, Ewondo, Duala, Bassa, many others
• 📞
  Calling code: +237
• ⏰
  Time zone: WAT (UTC+1), no DST
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .cm

Foods that show up next to 🇨🇲

Landmarks and cultural sites

Three colonial legacies. The country's borders were drawn by Germany between 1884 and 1911, when German Kamerun was one of Berlin's largest African possessions. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles partitioned the territory: France took roughly 80% (Cameroun), Britain took two narrow strips (Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons, administered as parts of Nigeria). The two halves lived under different colonial languages, legal systems, and education models for 40 years.

Independence and the first flag. French Cameroun became independent on January 1, 1960. Its first flag, a plain vertical green-red-yellow tricolor, made Cameroon the first African country to adopt the pan-African palette (the colors echoing Ethiopia's tricolor, which dated from the 1897 Battle of Adwa).

1961 reunification. On October 1, 1961, British Southern Cameroons voted in a UN-run plebiscite to join the new Federal Republic of Cameroon rather than Nigeria. The flag was updated to include two gold stars on the green stripe, representing the two federated states. British Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria instead.

1972 and 1975 unification. The May 20, 1972 constitutional referendum ended the federation and created the United Republic of Cameroon, a unitary state. In 1975 the two stars were replaced by a single yellow star centered on the red band, the 'star of unity' that the flag still carries. May 20 is the country's biggest civic day.

The Paul Biya era. Paul Biya became prime minister in 1975, then president in 1982 after Ahmadou Ahidjo's resignation. He has held the office ever since, one of the longest-serving heads of state in the world (second only to Equatorial Guinea's Obiang). Constitutional changes in 2008 removed term limits. His 2025 re-election was Cameroon's most-covered news moment in years.

• 🎓
  February 11: Youth Day: Students march in every major town. Commemorates the [1961 plebiscite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon) in which British Southern Cameroons voted to join Cameroun.
• 🎉
  May 20: National Day (Unity Day): The year's biggest civic day. Commemorates the [1972 constitutional referendum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cameroon) that turned the federation into a unitary state. Military parade through Yaoundé.
• 🥂
  January 1: Independence Day from France: Commemorates independence on January 1, 1960, for French-mandated Cameroun.
• 🤝
  October 1: Unification Day: Marks the 1961 formal joining of the two federated states.
• 🕌
  Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha: Public holidays. Cameroon has a roughly 22% Muslim population, concentrated in the Adamawa and Far North regions.

• •Cameroon was the first African country to adopt the pan-African green-yellow-red palette (from Ethiopia's 1897 tricolor) on its post-independence flag in 1960.
• •The Indomitable Lions have made eight World Cup appearances, more than any other African team. Cameroon was the first African team to reach a World Cup quarter-final (1990).
• •Roger Milla scored four goals at the 1990 World Cup aged 38, then returned in 1994 at 42 and scored again, becoming the oldest goal scorer in World Cup history at the time.
• •Manu Dibango's Soul Makossa (1972) has been sampled by Michael Jackson on Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' and by Rihanna on Don't Stop the Music, with royalties settled out of court in both cases.
• •Cameroon is the only African country with both French and English as official languages, a direct legacy of the League of Nations mandate that split German Kamerun between France and Britain after World War I.
• •Paul Biya has been president since November 1982, one of the two longest-serving heads of state in the world alongside Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang (since 1979). Biya was re-elected in 2025.
• •Mount Cameroon's February Race of Hope climbs from Buea at 900 m to the 4,040 m summit and back down, roughly 38 km total, the winning time usually under 5 hours.
• •The Bamum script, devised by Sultan Njoya in 1896 to write the Bamum language, went through seven iterations before becoming a full syllabary. One of the rare indigenous African writing systems.

• •🇨🇲 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1E8U+1F1E8 (C) + U+1F1F2U+1F1F2 (M). ISO 3166-1 alpha-2: CMCM.
• •Unsupported platforms render it as the letters CMCM.
• •Shortcode: :flag_cm::flag_cm: or :cameroon::cameroon: on most messaging platforms.
• •Cameroon's two-letter domain is .cm.cm, historically used for Cameroonian sites and occasionally for typo-squatting on .com.com.

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