The U.K. says it has reached a "historic" deal to cede the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean to the Republic of Mauritius, thus surrendering the final colony of Britain's once-sprawling African empire.

UK agrees to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius

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.