…as UN orders Britain to relinquish colony
Africa’s decolonisation is far from being complete as the United Kingdom holds onto an archipelago, a group of islands in the Indian ocean as its colony. And this is despite UN resolution asking the old colonialist to leave.
The islands belong to Mauritius, but UK declined to let them go in 1965, when the country became independent. It’s like Britain holding on to Tarkwa Bay at Nigeria’s independence in 1960.
The development has infuriated the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, who has expressed deep concern over UK’s continued “colonial administration” of the Chagos Archipelago.
“The Chairperson expresses his deep concern over the continued colonial administration of the United Kingdom to the Chagos Archipelago, in violation of the United Nations General Assembly’s Resolution 73/295 adopted on May 22, 2019, in which the international community demanded from the United Kingdom to withdraw unconditionally within six months from the date of the Resolution, which expired on November 22, 2019,” an AU statement issued on late Friday read.
Chairperson of the 55-member pan African bloc further recalled that the UN General Assembly Resolution 73/295 was adopted following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of February 25 this year “on the legal effects of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965.”
Confiance News gathered that Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands – now a British overseas territory – in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968. The International Court of Justice said the islands were not lawfully separated from the former colony of Mauritius.
