where are the chagos islands

The Chagos Islands (Chagos Archipelago) are in the central Indian Ocean, roughly halfway between Africa and Indonesia, south of India and the Maldives.

Where they are on the map

• The islands lie in the central Indian Ocean between about 4.5–7.5° south latitude and 71–73° east longitude.

• They are about 500 km (310 miles) south of the Maldives archipelago and around 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.

• The group is also roughly 2,000–2,200 km northeast of Mauritius, placing it in a very remote, mid-ocean location.

What the Chagos Islands are

• The Chagos Archipelago is a cluster of over 55–60 low-lying coral islands arranged in several atolls, with a total land area of a bit over 50–60 km² spread across a huge ocean area.

• Diego Garcia is the largest and southernmost island; it forms a horseshoe-shaped atoll and hosts a major joint US–UK military facility, making it strategically significant.

Political and current context

• The archipelago has long been administered as the British Indian Ocean Territory, though it is geographically tied to Mauritius and lies on the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge with the Maldives to the north.

• There is an ongoing dispute and negotiation over sovereignty and the right of return for the Chagossian people, and recent announcements have discussed recognizing Mauritius’s sovereignty over the islands, which keeps the Chagos issue in the latest news and forum discussion.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.