UK to hand Chagos Islands to Mauritius after decades long dispute

Britain has agreed to give up sovereignty over a group of remote islands described as its last African colony – after a dispute stretching back for fifty years.

In return, the Chagos islands deal will guarantee the long term future of a strategic military base, used by the UK and the United States.

The government hailed what it called the historic agreement with Mauritius, and said it would “address wrongs of the past”.