Why is the UK handing the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius?
Al Jazeera
An agreement between the UK and Mauritian governments could see thousands of exiled Chagossians resettled again.
After a dispute running for more than 50 years, the United Kingdom will finally hand back the Chagos Islands, an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, to the southeast African island country of Mauritius.
As part of an agreement on Thursday, the governments of the UK and Mauritius jointly announced that full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, would again belong to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that a United States military base could continue operating there for the next 99 years.
The announcement has prompted mixed feelings among Chagossians who were exiled from the archipelago to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, and have for years fought to return to their ancestral homeland without any conditions attached.
While many acknowledge this is a crucial step towards asserting the rights of Chagossians, some also point out that they were not included in the negotiations between the two governments.
Here’s what you need to know about the new deal, and why there’s been much controversy over the Chagos:
