- Contested territories
- Claimed by Mauritius and the Maldives
- Controlled by United Kingdom
- Area 56,13 km² (land) 15,000 km² (sea)
- Population 3,000 (soldiers and contracted personnel)
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of seven atolls consisting of more than sixty islands, of which Diego Garcia is the largest and the only one inhabited. The sovereignty is disputed between Mauritius, the Maldives and the United Kingdom, which considers it to be part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The indigenous Chagossians, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, were evicted between 1967 and 1973 when the UK rented the area out to the United States to build a military base. Whereas only military and civilian contracted personnel is now living on Diego Garcia, the Chagossian natives still fight for their return to the islands. In 2019, the United Nations adopted a resolution that affirmed that the archipelago forms an integral part of Mauritius.