Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos islands, has been a UK and US airbase since the 1960s and is thought to be excluded from the right to return. Photograph: Universal Images/Getty Images

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

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.