Soldiers from the 8th RIMA secure Magenta airport in Nouméa, New Caledonia, May 17, 2024 (AFP/Delphine Mayeur)
A man was killed on Saturday in New Caledonia in an exchange of gunfire at a dam, bringing to six the number of deaths since the start of riots caused by an electoral reform which angered separatists.
General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the gendarmerie in New Caledonia, confirmed to AFP “one dead and two injured in Kaala-Gomen”, a commune in the North province.
The events occurred at 2:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. in Paris), according to two sources close to the matter. According to one of them, shots were exchanged when two Caldoches (Caledonians of European origin) from the same family wanted to pass a roadblock erected by rioters: the father died, his son was injured , as well as a Kanak (Caledonian of indigenous Melanesian origin).
This is the first death in events occurring outside the urban area of Nouméa, the New Caledonian “capital”, where riots of an essentially urban dimension had until then been concentrated.
Since the start of the week, the insurrectional violence in New Caledonia, the most serious to have occurred in this South Pacific territory since the 1980s, has left six dead, including two gendarmes and four civilians (three Kanaks and one Caldoche), and Hundreds of injured, according to authorities.
The arrival of 1,000 reinforcements on Friday, in addition to the 1,700 already deployed, showed the determination of the French authorities to regain control of the situation.
But for residents, the increasingly widespread damage and obstacles to traffic are making it difficult to get supplies to businesses, as well as the operation of public services, particularly health services.
In the Magenta district of Nouméa, the main street is littered with debris, charred cars and burned carts on Saturday, the scars of the night’s unrest. It is now secured by a large police force, noted AFP.
If a pizzeria and a Japanese caterer were reduced to ashes, the neighborhood supermarket, right next door, reopened its doors for just a few hours, with a queue of several hundred people.
– “Killing each other” –
The danger remains particularly in the neighborhoods where the rioters are the most numerous and the best organized.
In one of them, the Vallée du Tir in Nouméa, a motorcyclist was killed late Friday afternoon in a road accident, according to public prosecutor Yves Dupas.
The government of New Caledonia called at a press conference for an end to roadblocks and barricades.
“We are killing each other and we cannot continue like this,” said Vaimu’a Muliava, a member of the government responsible for the civil service. “People are already dying not because of armed conflicts, but because they have no access to healthcare, no access to food,” he added.
The High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc, conceded on Friday that three disadvantaged neighborhoods of the largest city in the territory, Nouméa, mainly populated by Kanaks, remained in the hands of “hundreds of rioters”.
He promised the mobilization of the State to “organize the delivery of basic necessities”, as well as an “air bridge” between France and its archipelago, separated by more than 16,000 km.
According to the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of New Caledonia David Guyenne, the violence “wiped out” 80% to 90% of the commercial distribution chain (stores, warehouses, wholesalers) in the capital.
A manager at the Nouméa hospital, Thierry de Greslan, was alarmed by the deterioration of the health situation. “Three or four people died yesterday (Thursday) due to lack of access to care”, notably due to roadblocks, he said on Friday.
The French Blood Establishment has announced the delivery of blood products to respond to a “critical” situation.
Although forces are deployed to secure the territory’s ports and airport, now placed under the state of emergency decreed by the government on Wednesday evening, commercial flights remain suspended. According to the local government, “3,200 people” are stranded, unable to leave or return to the archipelago.
– Investigation of “sponsors” –
The curfew decreed on Tuesday, between 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. local time (9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Paris), remains in force.
The Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti published a circular on Friday asking the prosecution for “the greatest firmness against the perpetrators of the abuses”.
The Nouméa public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation in particular for criminal conspiracy targeting alleged “sponsors” of the riots, including “certain members of the CCAT”, the Field Action Coordination Cell, this independence collective in the government’s crosshairs.
In total, since Sunday, 163 people have been taken into police custody, of which 26 have been brought before the courts, according to the prosecution.
Throughout New Caledonia, the social network TikTok, used by the rioters, is banned until further notice.
The amount of damage reached 200 million euros, according to local estimates dating back to Thursday.
The constitutional reform which ignited the powder was adopted by the deputies, after the senators, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
Riots in New Caledonia (AFP/Valentin RAKOVSKY, Laurence SAUBADU)
This text will still have to be voted on by parliamentarians meeting in Congress, unless an agreement on a global text between separatists and loyalists occurs beforehand.
Discussions are taking place in Paris on the future of this reform, carried out without sufficient consultation according to many New Caledonian elected officials.
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, with several parliamentarians from all political stripes, requested a dialogue mission on Friday during a meeting in Matignon. There is no consensus on the idea of postponing the convening of the Congress which must ratify the reform, according to several parliamentary sources.
The reform expands the electorate to provincial elections, crucial in the archipelago. Supporters of independence believe that this modification will reduce their electoral weight and marginalize “even more the indigenous Kanak people”.
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© 2024 AFP
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