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,

The British government announced it will hand sovereignty over the Chagos Islands but will maintain a key US-British military base for 99-years