Louis Olivier Bancoult

Louis Olivier Bancoult (born 1964) is a Chagossian activist for the right of return and the leader of the Chagos Refugee Group (CRG).^[1][2]

Louis Olivier Bancoult
Born	15 February 1964 Peros Banhos, Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius

Biography

He was born in 1964 on the island of Peros Banhos in the Chagos Archipelago, from where he was forcibly removed at the age of four and transported to Mauritius.^[3] In response, his mother Rita Élysée Bancoult, together with activists Charlesia Alexis and Lisette Talate, founded the CRG^[2] in 1982.^[4]

Bancoult is an electrician and an advocate for the juridical right of the Chagossians to return from Mauritius to their original homeland.^[5] He has been involved in several high profile legal actions concerning the exile of the Chagos Islanders. He was elected multiple times as president of the Chagossian Welfare Fund, responsible for distributing up to 7 million rupees a year in aid from the Mauritian government.^[6]

He was one of five islanders who, on 13 February 2022, stepped on to the beach of Peros Banhos, one of the larger atolls making up the occupied Chagos Islands, due to Mauritius securing legal victories with the United Nations General Assembly and the International Court of Justice.^[7]

In 2023, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Liseby Elysé, a Chagossian woman who testified before the International Court of Justice in the case opposing Mauritius to the United Kingdom.^[8]

Following the October 2024 joint statement between Mauritius and the United Kingdom regarding Britain's cession of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, Bancoult met with Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth to discuss resettlement in the Chagos Islands.^[9]

See also

• Anglo-American occupation of the Chagos Archipelago
• Expulsion of the Chagossians