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UK puts the Chagos deal on ice, and Mauritius is left waiting

A landmark sovereignty agreement more than a year in the making has been suspended. The British government has put the Chagos Islands deal on hold, and the reason traces directly to one deteriorating relationship: UK PM Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump stopped getting along. Without Washington's formal sign-off, London will not move the treaty forward.

Attorney General Gavin Glover said the suspension "comes as no surprise," noting that Trump backed the agreement when it was first concluded in May 2025 but has since failed to give any formal approval. A Chagos bill's absence from the upcoming King's Speech had already set alarm bells ringing, but Glover was careful to insist the deal is not dead.

A British Foreign Office team led by Robbie Bullock is still scheduled to visit Mauritius on April 22 for technical discussions. Separately, Ritesh Ramful stated Mauritius will not rule out any avenue, diplomatic or legal, to complete the decolonisation of the archipelago.

The treaty meant to close a 60-year chapter is now hostage to a Starmer-Trump fallout that has nothing to do with us.

Bread up, electricity up: the cabinet's crisis playbook

Bread costs 50% more as of Friday. The Conseil des ministres approved a revision of the controlled price from Rs 2.60 to Rs 3.90 per 100g, granting bakeries relief from rising input costs linked to the Middle East crisis. Electricity tariffs climb by 15%, with households on the lowest consumption brackets reportedly getting an exemption.

On the business side, a new SME Resilience and Import & Export Continuity Support Scheme was greenlit, with the existing freight rebate mechanism staying in place. Liquidity relief and moratorium for affected firms are also in the pipeline. It is triage, not stimulus. The government acknowledged its budget room is tight.

The bread price is the number that will hit kitchen tables hardest. For the poorest households, food already absorbs 78 cents of every rupee earned.

MMM votes to stay, but Bérenger didn't show up

306 delegates gathered at Belle-Rose Saturday for the Mouvement Militant Mauricien's assembly. They voted by show of hands to keep the party in government, and a clear majority came out in favour. Paul Bérenger, the historic leader, was absent from the vote, along with Joanna Bérenger and Chetan Baboolall.

Party president Reza Uteem called on Bérenger to "respect the wish expressed by activists." Secretary general Rajesh Bhagwan said delegates sent a "strong signal" to their leader. Bérenger had told reporters he would make up his mind "Monday morning."

Strong signal. Leader not in the room. Watch this space.

FCC cracks a cyber plot during a 23-hour raid

A 23-hour operation. A ransomware attack mid-search. And a cloud backup the investigators found just in time. Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) agents raided properties linked to billionaire Avinash Gopee from April 7 to 9, including his Royal Green Wellness Resort. When they reached the IT servers, someone had already deployed ransomware to encrypt and destroy financial records.

FCC digital forensics experts located a cloud backup and recovered the data. Investigators are now working through files from NG Holdings Ltd and related companies, probing a Rs 350 million loan from the Mauritius Investment Corporation in 2020-21 that was earmarked for luxury retirement projects.

Ransomware deployed against a financial crime raid is new territory for Mauritius. It nearly worked.

Interpol is now looking for the Twaha Academy principal

Mufti Azhar Peerbocus, Acting Principal of the Twaha Academy Boarding School in Bel Air, left Mauritius on April 1 on a flight to South Africa, one day before four formal complaints reached police. Allegations describe beatings with a cane, forced consumption of substances, and cash bribes offered to children to stay quiet.

Police confirmed they have initiated Interpol procedures to locate suspect. Fifteen former students are scheduled to be heard by the Family Protection Brigade. An audio recording is circulating where a voice attributed to Peerbocus allegedly offered Rs 1,000 to a child to deny witnessing the abuse.

🗞️ SHORTS

Kidney transplants: new unit opens in Rose-Belle – India and Mauritius launched a full Renal Transplant Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital (JNH) Friday, with PM Ramgoolam and India FM Jaishankar both attending.

Chikungunya spreads to Quatre-Bornes – Over 1,112 cases recorded this year, with Quatre-Bornes now under enhanced health authority surveillance alongside Rose-Hill.

Beef up Rs 20 from Monday – SOCOVIA raises the half-kilo price to Rs 210 after foot-and-mouth disease in South Africa forced a costlier switch to Namibian sourcing.

Rs 80M bitcoin case: engineer bailed – FCC flagged 1.46 million euros in cryptocurrency across two accounts linked to software engineer Keshwarsingh Nadan, 36, of Flic-en-Flac.

Glasgow 2026: Mauritius preps under way – Delegation chief Fayzal Bundhun returns from Scotland after a Chiefs of Mission meeting bringing together 69 nations ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

$4,749.20 Gold hits a record

Spot gold surged 8.20% in the latest session, blowing past $4,700 per ounce to set an all-time high. When investors collectively panic-buy the same asset, the move gets vertical. This is a direct read on how seriously markets are treating the unresolved US-Iran standoff. Mauritius imports most of what it consumes, and a sustained gold surge typically signals a stronger dollar ahead, which makes those imports even more expensive.

2,243.42 SEMDEX holds its ground

The Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) main index closed at 2,243.42 on Friday, up 20.22 points from the previous session. A 0.91% gain is modest in absolute terms, but notable in a week where global markets were watching the Iran ceasefire with nerves. Local stocks are holding, at least for now.

175 + 175 An Easter exchange between enemies

Russia and Ukraine swapped 350 prisoners of war on Saturday, 175 from each side, hours before a planned Easter truce. These exchanges are rare and logistically complex, both sides managed this one. That suggests a thin but real line of communication still exists, even as the wider war continues with no resolution in sight.

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Ethiopia's Easter, overshadowed by fuel queues

Millions of Ethiopians marked Good Friday in Addis Ababa. The backdrop: chronic fuel shortages and soaring commodity costs tied directly to the Middle East conflict. Long lines, rationed supplies, prices climbing at every market. For Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, the Easter calendar arrived this year against an economic backdrop that made celebration harder than usual.

A conflict in the Gulf is now deciding how much Ethiopians pay to observe their most sacred week.

Somalia gets its first offshore oil well

A Turkish drilling ship docked at Mogadishu port on Friday, marking the start of Somalia's first offshore oil drilling project under a bilateral deal with Ankara. It is a milestone for a country that has spent decades fighting insurgency and navigating piracy. Commercially viable reserves would reshape Somalia's economic outlook significantly.

An African charity sues Prince Harry

Sentebale, a charity co-founded by Prince Harry in Lesotho to honour Princess Diana's legacy in Africa, filed a defamation lawsuit against him after he resigned as patron last year. What Harry allegedly said and why he left remain disputed. It is an unusual legal situation — a charity taking its own co-founder to court.

Artemis crew splashes down after first Moon flyby in 52 years

Four NASA astronauts are home after a nine-day mission that took them further from Earth than any humans since the Apollo programme. The Artemis II crew completed a flyby of the Moon, the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, before splashing down in the Pacific. No landing this time, but the flight validated the systems needed for a future lunar return.

Two generations grew up thinking Moon missions were history. They may need to update that assumption.

Vance's "best, final offer": still no deal with Iran

US Vice President JD Vance left Islamabad on Saturday after declaring he had put America's best and final offer on the table. Iran's delegation told reporters Washington was "looking for an excuse to leave." Tehran denied US claims that American naval ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, warning any military vessel attempting passage would receive "a strong response."

The ceasefire holds, barely. Deeper negotiations appear stalled, with each side accusing the other of bad faith. US President Donald Trump said Washington had won the conflict regardless of how talks concluded.

Can Hungary's Orbán survive 16 years in power?

Voters head to the polls in Hungary today in what polls describe as the closest election in more than a decade. The challenger, Péter Magyar, leads a grassroots party that built genuine momentum from almost nothing over the past two years. PM Viktor Orbán, EU hawk, Trump ally, and 16-year incumbent, has been defiant throughout the campaign. Results are expected to roll in through today.

China's mystery: a 40-day airspace blackout near Shanghai

Since March 27, China has sealed off more than 73,000 square kilometres of airspace off the Shanghai coast to all non-military traffic, until May 6. No explanation. No statement. Just a published aviation notice and silence from Beijing.

Military analysts say a restriction this large and this long is without precedent. Previous Chinese airspace closures lasted days, not weeks. Large-scale naval exercise? A weapons test? Something else entirely? Nobody outside Beijing knows, and that ambiguity appears deliberate. Regional neighbours are watching closely.