Chagos islanders displaced for a US military base protest a deal on their future made without them

LONDON (AP) — Islanders who were forced to leave their remote Indian Ocean home to make way for a U.S. military base half a century ago protested outside the U.K. Parliament on Monday against a deal they say has decided their homeland’s fate without them.

The British government announced last week that it is handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under an agreement that will see the American naval and bomber base stay on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Opponents accuse the government of surrendering sovereignty over a British territory. And the deal has left displaced residents uncertain whether they can go home.

“They announced a deal without even consulting us, which is at the center of all this tragedy,” said Frankie Bontemps, who called the U.K.-Mauritius agreement “history repeating itself.”

“They have a deal which is suitable for them, best for them, of course. And what about the people? What about the people that they ignored like 65 years ago?”

The Chagos Islands, a tropical archipelago just south of the equator off the tip of India, have been under British control since 1814. They have been known as the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965 when they were split off from Mauritius, a then-U.K. colony that gained independence three years later.

Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the islands in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build the Diego Garcia base, which has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the U.S. acknowledged it also had been used for clandestine rendition flights of terror suspects.

Many of the islanders resettled in Britain and fought unsuccessfully in U.K. courts to return home. Their cause has garnered international support, notably among African nations and within the United Nations. In a non-binding 2019 opinion, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.K. had unlawfully carved up Mauritius when it agreed to end colonial rule in the late 1960s.

The U.N. General Assembly followed that opinion with a resolution demanding that Britain end its “colonial administration” of the Chagos Islands and return them to Mauritius.

Britain’s newly elected Labour government says that without the deal the status of the military base would be under threat from legal challenges.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the new government “inherited unfinished business” from the previous Conservative administration, which began negotiations with Mauritius in 2022.

“The status quo was not sustainable,” Lammy told lawmakers in the House of Commons. “A binding judgement against the U.K. seemed inevitable.”

Under the agreement, the U.K. will retain sovereignty of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years, paying Mauritius an undisclosed rent.

U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the deal, saying it “secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.”

But Britain’s Conservative opposition said the decision to hand over a piece of U.K. territory sets a worrying precedent for other far-flung possessions including Gibraltar, which is claimed by Spain, and the Falkland Islands, claimed by Argentina.

The government strongly denies that. Starmer spokesman Dave Pares said Monday that “British sovereignty of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands is not up for negotiation.”

The agreement will create a resettlement fund for displaced Chagossians aimed at letting them move back to the islands – apart from Diego Garcia. The U.K. says details of any returns are now the responsibility of Mauritius.

“They shouldn’t have made this deal without asking us what we wanted,” said Jemmy Simon, whose grandparents were expelled from the Chagos Islands. “It might just be another island to them. It might just be a military base for them. It might just be keeping everybody else safe. But to us, it is home.”

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.

Chagossians attend a protest to respond to the U.K. announcement agreeing to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians attend a protest to respond to the U.K. announcement agreeing to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Mary Marjorie Sophie, center, and other Chagossians attend a protest to respond to the U.K. announcement agreeing to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians attend a protest to response the U.K. announcement to agree to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians attend a protest to response the U.K. announcement to agree to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians Lucy Sagai, center, attends a protest to response the U.K. announcement to agree to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians Marie Michele, right, attends a protest to respond to the U.K. announcement agreeing to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians attend a protest to response the U.K. announcement to agree to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chagossians Whitney Tranquille, center, attends a protest to response the U.K. announcement to agree to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their "Exclusion" from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Saudi warplanes have reportedly struck on Friday forces in southern Yemen backed by the United Arab Emirates, a separatist leader says.

This comes as a Saudi-led operation attempts to take over camps of the Southern Transitional Council, or STC, in the governorate of Haramout that borders Saudi Arabia.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE rose after the STC moved last month into Yemen’s governorates of Hadramout and Mahra and seized an oil-rich region. The move pushed out forces affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, a group aligned with the coalition in fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen accused the head of the STC of blocking a Saudi mediation delegation from landing in the southern city of Aden.

The STC deputy and former Hamdrmout governor, Ahmed bin Breik, said in a statement that the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces advanced toward the camps, but the separatists refused to withdraw, apparently leading to the airstrikes.

Mohamed al-Nakib, spokesperson for the STC-backed Southern Shield Forces, also known as Dera Al-Janoub, said Saudi airstrikes caused fatalities, without providing details. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that claim.

Al-Nakib also accused Saudi Arabia in a video on X of using “Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda militias” in a "large-scale attack " early Friday that he claimed sepratists were able to repel.

He likened the latest developments to Yemen’s 1994 civil war, “except that this time it is under the cover of Saudi aviation operations.”

Salem al-Khanbashi, the governor of Hadramout who was chosen Friday by Yemen's internationally recognized government to command the Saudi-led forces in the governorate, refuted STC claims, calling them “ridiculous” and showing intentions of escalation instead of a peaceful handover, according Okaz newspaper, which is aligned with the Saudi government.

Earlier on Friday, al-khanbashi called the current operation of retrieving seized areas “peaceful.”

“This operation is not a declaration of war and does not seek escalation,” al-Khanbashi said in a speech aired on state media. “This is a responsible pre-emptive measure to remove weapons and prevent chaos and the camps from being used to undermine the security in Hadramout,” he added.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen demands the withdrawal of STC forces from the two governorates as part of de-escalation efforts. The STC has so far refused to hand over its weapons and camps.

The coalition's spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said Friday on X that Saudi-backed naval forces were deployed across the Arabian Sea to carry out inspections and combat smuggling.

In his post on X, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, said the kingdom had tried “all efforts with STC” for weeks "to stop the escalation" and to urge the separatists to leave Hadramout and Mahra, only to be faced with “continued intransigence and rejection from Aidarous al-Zubaidi," the STC head.

Al-Jaber said the latest development was not permitting the Saudi delegation's jet to land in Aden, despite having agreed on its arrival with some STC leaders to find a solution that serves “everyone and the public interest.”

Yemen’s transport ministry, aligned with STC, said Saudi Arabia imposed on Thursday requirements mandating that flights to and from Aden International Airport undergo inspection in Jeddah. The ministry expressed “shock” and denounced the decision. There was no confirmation from Saudi authorities.

ِA spokesperson with the transport ministry told the AP late Thursday that all flights from and to the UAE were suspended until Saudi Arabia reverses these reported measures.

Yemen has been engulfed in a civil war for more than a decade, with the Houthis controlling much of the northern regions, while a Saudi-UAE-backed coalition supports the internationally recognized government in the south. However, the UAE also helps the southern separatists who call for South Yemen to secede once again from Yemen. Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

Southern Yemen soldiers of Southern Transitional Council (STC) at a check point, in Aden, Yemen, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo)