TheGuardian.com reported that after decades of hostility,The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Plans for the base were the reason the UK severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of Mauritius when it granted the latter independence in 1968 and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people. This would extinguish the British Indian Ocean Territory, and the IO ISO-3166 two-letter country code and .io domain could also be extinguished. The United Kingdom, which was not a party to the case, disputes and does not recognise the tribunal’s decision, so further legal processes are likely. In October 2024, the UK announced that it would hand over sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius once a treaty is finalised.

Source: The Guardian October 08, 2024 08:36 UTC