Country flag raised by soldiers beginning to advance (7)
I believe the answer is:
eritrea
'country' is the definition.
(I know that Eritrea is a African country)
'flag raised by soldiers beginning to advance' is the wordplay.
'flag' becomes 'tire' (both can mean to become weary).
'raised by' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'soldiers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'advance' is 'a'.
'tire' back-to-front is 'erit'.
'erit'+'re'+'a'='ERITREA'
(Other definitions for eritrea that I've seen before include "State north of Ethiopia" , "Northeast African country" , "It achieved independence from Ethiopia in 1993" , "Asmara area" , "It declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1993" .)