The agreement ends decades of dispute over Britain’s last African colony, from which thousands of people were forcibly evicted, while maintaining a key U.S.-British military base there.

Britain struck a deal to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, while keeping control of a strategically important UK-US military base for another century.Under the agreement,

After years of negotiations, the UK is giving up its sovereignty over a cluster of strategically important Indian Ocean islands. The move has led to criticism from Britain's Conservative opposition and some local Indigenous groups.