The UK has officially handed over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending Britain’s last colonial claim in Africa. The move, confirmed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, includes a deal allowing the UK and the U.S. to keep their joint military base on Diego Garcia for the next 99 years.
Britain will pay Mauritius £101 million ($135 million) per year, totaling £3.4 billion ($4.5 billion), for continued use of the base. Starmer said the agreement protects British and American security interests in the Indian Ocean.
“This is one of the most significant contributions we make to our security relationship with the United States,” he said.
The deal nearly stalled after a British court temporarily blocked the handover. Two Chagossian women, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, challenged the deal on human rights grounds, saying the exiled community had not been consulted. The High Court lifted the injunction later that day.
“We are British citizens, yet our right doesn’t count?” Pompe said outside court.
Chagossians were evicted in the 1960s and 70s to make room for the U.S. military base. Many remain in exile in the UK and Mauritius.
Critics of the deal worry it could open the region to Chinese influence. Mauritius, heavily dependent on Chinese imports, now controls all islands except Diego Garcia.
Former UK defense minister Grant Shapps called the plan “insane,” warning that China might use nearby islands to spy on Western military operations.
The UK has controlled the Chagos Islands since 1814. It separated the islands from Mauritius in 1965 before Mauritius gained independence. In 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK should return the islands to Mauritius, a view later supported by the UN.
Starmer said Britain had no legal option but to accept the outcome and secure a long-term lease for Diego Garcia.
Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam praised the deal, saying it ends a long struggle to complete the country’s decolonization.
“With this agreement, we are completing the total process of decolonization,” he said in a national broadcast.
