Flag: Mauritania Emoji

The flag of Mauritania: a green field with a yellow horizontal crescent (opening upward like a smile) and a yellow five-pointed star above it, framed by two thin red horizontal bands at the top and bottom. The green field, crescent, and star are Islamic symbols and reflect Mauritania's identity as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The yellow is a rare choice in flag design (most Islamic flags use red, white, or black) and represents the Sahara, which covers about 75% of the country.

The red bands are the newest part of the flag, added by referendum in August 2017 (86% in favor) and first raised on November 28, 2017, the 57th anniversary of Mauritania's independence from France. They represent the blood of those who fought against colonial rule. The original 1959 flag was the same green field with yellow crescent and star but without the red bands.

🇲🇷 is the second-least-posted Maghreb flag after 🇪🇭, mostly because Mauritania has a small population (around 5.2 million) and limited international diaspora compared to its neighbors. But the flag carries an outsize cultural identity: Mauritania bridges the Arab Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa, with Hassaniya Arabic as the daily language alongside Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof (the 'national languages' of the Afro-Mauritanian south). The country sits between Western Sahara, Algeria, Mali, and Senegal, and the flag spikes around football and travel content rather than diaspora politics.

The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1F2 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER MU+1F1F2 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER M + U+1F1F7 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER RU+1F1F7 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER R. MR comes from the country name (the M-A and M-O codes were already taken by Morocco and Macao). Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015 with the original 2-band-less design, then automatically updated everywhere when the new design was standardized.

🇲🇷 sits in a quieter slot than its neighbors. The country has around 5.2 million people, a smaller diaspora than Morocco or Algeria, and limited high-speed internet outside Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. But the flag has three reliable posting communities.

Adventure travel and rail content. The Mauritania Railway iron ore train, the longest train in the world (200+ wagons, 2.5 to 3 km long), runs 704 km from Zouérat to Nouadhibou through the Sahara. Adventure travelers post 🇲🇷 with the open-air rides on top of empty iron-ore cars in steady rotation: it's one of the most-requested 'extreme journeys' on YouTube travel TikTok. Banc d'Arguin (the largest UNESCO bird-and-fishing reserve in West Africa) and the Adrar dunes are the next-most-tagged destinations.

Heritage and religion. Chinguetti and the four UNESCO-listed ksour (Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt, Oualata) host centuries-old Islamic manuscript libraries that academic and religious accounts post 🇲🇷 alongside year-round. Chinguetti is sometimes called the seventh-holiest city of Islam.

Football. Mauritania's national team, the Mourabitounes (named after the medieval Almoravid dynasty that ruled the western Maghreb and southern Iberia), made their first AFCON qualification in 2019 and have appeared at the last three tournaments in a row. The qualification breakthrough remains the country's biggest social-media flag moment.

Anti-slavery activism. Mauritania was the last country in the world to officially abolish slavery (1981), and human-rights NGOs continue to estimate that hereditary slavery still affects up to 20% of the population, mostly the Haratine community. Anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid (UN Human Rights Prize winner 2013) keeps 🇲🇷 in international human-rights timelines.

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  Capital: Nouakchott (18.07°N, 15.96°W)
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  Population: ~5.2 million (2025)
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  Area: 1,030,700 km² (Africa's 11th largest country)
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  Currency: Mauritanian ouguiya (MRU, UM)
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  Languages: Arabic (official), Hassaniya, Pulaar, Soninke, Wolof (national)
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  Calling code: +222
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  Time zone: GMT (UTC+0), no DST
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  Internet TLD: .mr

Foods that show up next to 🇲🇷

Landmarks that anchor heritage and travel content

Mauritania's first national flag, adopted on April 1, 1959 (a year before independence from France in 1960), was a plain green field with a yellow horizontal crescent and a yellow five-pointed star above it. The design was meant to read clearly as Islamic without using the standard pan-Arab palette of red, white, and black. The yellow against green was deliberately distinct, a visual signal of Mauritania's bridge identity between the Arab Maghreb and the broader African continent (yellow is also a pan-African color).

The flag stayed unchanged for 58 years. Then in 2016, the Inclusive National Dialogue convened by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz proposed adding red bands to honor those killed in the resistance to French colonial rule. The proposal was put to a constitutional referendum on August 5, 2017, which also covered changes to the national anthem and the abolition of the senate. The referendum passed with 86% in favor. The new flag was first raised on November 28, 2017, the 57th anniversary of independence.

Why yellow. The yellow is sometimes interpreted as the Sahara (which covers 75% of the country), sometimes as gold (Mauritania has small gold deposits), and sometimes as a deliberate echo of pan-African yellow. No single official explanation has been adopted. The crescent's upward orientation (opening like a smile) is also distinctive: most national crescents face right or left, embracing the star. Mauritania's faces up, with the star above rather than inside.

The country's name. Mauritania comes from Mauretania, the Roman name for the western Maghreb (which then included parts of modern Morocco and Algeria). The Mauri were the Berber tribes the Romans dealt with. Modern Mauritania reclaimed the name in 1903 when France made it a protectorate, and kept it through independence in 1960.

• January 1: New Year's Day: Public holiday on the Gregorian calendar.
• May 1: Labour Day: Standard workers' holiday.
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  May 25: Africa Day: Marks the founding of the Organization of African Unity (now African Union) in 1963.
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  November 28: Independence Day: Marks Mauritania's 1960 independence from France. Military parade in Nouakchott, presidential address, and the country's biggest civic moment. Also the day the redesigned flag was first raised in 2017.

• •The flag's red bands were added in 2017 by referendum, with 86% voter approval.
• •Mauritania operates the longest train in the world, the SNIM iron ore train at 2.5 to 3 km long with 200+ wagons.
• •Mauritania was the last country in the world to officially abolish slavery, in 1981. Slavery wasn't criminalized as a prosecutable offense until 2007.
• •Chinguetti, the UNESCO-listed Saharan oasis town, is sometimes called the seventh-holiest city of Islam, with manuscript libraries continuously maintained since the 13th century.
• •Mauritania's national football team is nicknamed the Mourabitounes after the medieval Almoravid dynasty, which ruled the western Maghreb and southern Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries.
• •Mauritania straddles the Arab and Sub-Saharan African worlds: Hassaniya Arabic is the daily language, but Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof are official 'national languages'.
• •The Banc d'Arguin National Park on the Atlantic coast is one of the largest UNESCO-listed marine reserves in the world, with the world's biggest concentration of breeding shore birds.
• •Mauritanian sweet tea is poured in three rounds, with a famous proverb: 'The first glass is bitter as life, the second strong as love, and the third gentle as death.'