World Affairs
  • Year: 2021
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 4

The Scattered Islands: A French Strategic Asset in the Indian Ocean

  • Author:
  • Paul Villatoux
  • Total Page Count: 6
  • Published Online: Mar 8, 2022
  • Page Number: 120 to 125

Online Published on 08 March, 2022.

Abstract

Among the remaining “confetti” of the erstwhile French colonial empire, the string of “scattered islands” in the Indian Ocean are little known. Four of them are located in the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and the African mainland, and the fifth is in the middle of the Indian Ocean. They have critical strategic significance in an oft forgotten area which holds many assets and where France retains several stakes, won centuries ago.