The flag is based on the military flag given by King Sobhuza II to the Swazi Pioneer Corps in 1941 to remind them of the nation’s military traditions. On 25 April 1967, the day the pledge of oath was taken by the king, the flag was hoisted for the first time. The College of Arms in London registered the flag on 30 October 1967. The first official hoisting of the flag was conducted on this day.
The national flag of Estonia is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white. In Estonian it is colloquially called the “sinimustvalge” (lit. ”blue-black-white”), after the colours of the bands.
First adopted on 21 November 1918 after its independence, it was used as a national flag until 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Estonia. After World War II, from 1944 to 1990, the Soviet Estonian flag consisted first of a generic red Soviet flag with the name of the republic, then changed to the red flag with a band of blue water waves near the bottom. The Estonian flag, which was also used by the Estonian government-in-exile, was officially re-adopted 7 August 1990 one year before its official restoration of independence.
The flag of Eritrea is dominated by a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side pointed toward the fly-side and then divided into two right triangles. The upper triangle is green and the lower triangle is blue with an Emblem (1952-1962) in gold (a vertical olive branch encircled by an olive wreath) centered on the hoist side of the triangle. The CIA World Factbook 2012 points out that the shape of the red triangle mimics the shape of the country.
Bata Airport is located north of Bata and provides connections to Malabo and Annobon in Equatorial Guinea, as well as connections to: Douala (Cameroon), and Cotonou (Benin) and Libreville (Gabon).
There are also scheduled ferry connections from Bata to Malabo and Douala.
It is possible to reach Bata by road from neighboring countries although the condition of the roads is highly variable depending on the season. The main road connection with Gabon requires of the use of a ferry or local pirogue canoe.
Annobon is of strategic importance to Equatorial Guinea as through its ownership the Equatorial Guinean government claims extensive maritime territory to the south of its neighbour, São Tomé and Príncipe (which itself lies to the south of Equatorial Guinea’s main land mass). Oil in the Gulf of Guinea represents more than 80% of Equatorial Guinea’s economy, though supplies from current reserves are predicted by some sources to run out before 2020. Although no drilling is currently taking place in São Tomé, there are estimated to be 34 billion barrels (5.4×109 m3) of oil within its marine borders. Equatorial Guinea claims the right to explore for and produce hydrocarbons in a huge area of sea surrounding Annobón that stretches from 1°N to almost 5°S, and from 2°E to 7°E, an area larger than the entire land and sea borders of the rest of Equatorial Guinea.
The national flag of Ecuador, which consists of horizontal bands of yellow (double width), blue and red, was first adopted by law in 1835 and later on 26 September 1860. The design of the current flag was finalized in 1900 with the addition of the coat of arms in the center of the flag. Before using the yellow, blue and red tricolor, Ecuador used white and blue flags that contained stars for each province of the country. The design of the flag is very similar to those of Colombia and Venezuela, which are also former constituent territories of Gran Colombia. All three are based on a proposal by Venezuelan General Francisco de Miranda, which was adopted by Venezuela in 1811 and later Gran Colombia with some modifications. There is a variant of the flag that does not contain the coat of arms that is used by the merchant marine. This flag matches Colombia’s in every aspect, but Colombia uses a different design when her merchant marine ships are at sail.
The national flag of Djibouti was adopted on 27 June 1977, following the country’s independence from France. The light blue represents the sky and the sea, as well as the Issa Somalis, green represents the everlasting green of the earth, as well as the Afar people, white represents the color of peace and the red star represents the unity and the blood shed by the martyrs of independence.
The flag of Chile consists of two equal horizontal bands of white and red, with a blue square the same height as the white band in the canton, which bears a white five-pointed star in the center. It was adopted on 18 October 1817. The Chilean flag is also known in Spanish as La Estrella Solitaria.
It has a 3:2 ratio between length and width, it is divided horizontally into two bands of equal size (the lower being red). The upper area is divided once: in a square (blue), with a single centered white star; and rectangle (white), whose lengths are in proportion 1:2.
The star may represent a guide to progress and honor while other interpretations refer to its reference to an independent state; blue symbolizes the sky and the Pacific Ocean, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the blood spilled to achieve independence.
The national flag of Cameroon was adopted in its present form on 20 May 1975 after Cameroon became a unitary state. It is a vertical tricolour of green, red and yellow, with a five-pointed star in its center. There is a wide variation in the size of the central star, although it is always contained within the inside stripe.
The colour scheme uses the traditional Pan-African colours (Cameroon was the second state to adopt them). The centre stripe is thought to stand for unity: red is the colour of unity, and the star is referred to as “the star of unity”. The yellow stands for the sun, and also the savannas in the northern part of the country, while the green is for the forests in the southern part of Cameroon.
The previous flag of Cameroon, used from 1961 to 1975, had a similar colour scheme, but with two gold (darker than the third stripe by comparison) stars in the upper half of the green. It was adopted after British Southern Cameroons joined the state of Cameroon.
The original national flag of Burundi was adopted after the country’s independence from Belgium on 1 July 1962. It went through several revisions and now consists of a white saltire which divides the field into alternating red and green areas. The center of the saltire merges into a white disk, on which there are three red solid six-pointed stars outlined in green. The current ratio is 3:5, which was changed from 2:3 until 27 September 1982.
The flag is divided into four parts by a white saltire. The upper and lower parts are red in color, while the left and right ones are green in color. White color of the saltire represents peace, green represents the nation’s hopes placed on future development and red symbolizes the suffering of the nation during its freedom struggle. The three stars in triangular configuration stand for the three major ethnic groups of Burundi: the Hutu, the Twa and the Tutsi. The three stars also stand for the three elements of the national motto: Unité, Travail, Progrès (“Unity, Work and Progress”), which can be seen on the coat of arms of Burundi. They also represent the loyalty that the citizens of the nations have pledged to their God, king and country.