Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.

The UK expelled the Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity, when it retained possession of what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.

The agreement follows 13 rounds of negotiations that began in 2022 after Mauritian arguments for sovereignty were recognised by the international court of justice (ICJ), the UN general assembly and the international tribunal of the law of the sea (Itlos) in 2019 and 2021.

  • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    231·
    2 months ago

    The Guardian understands that in the treaty there will be a right to return to all of the islands in the Chagos archipelago except for Diego Garcia.

    Better than nothing. Behind The Bastards did a few podcasts on this whole situation, absolutely disgusting what Britain and the US did to them.