Noumea: Hundreds of extra troops and police were sent to the troubled French Pacific island of New Caledonia on Friday, killing five people and injuring hundreds.
Opposition to France’s plan to introduce new voting rules has turned into bloody violence in the archipelago between Australia and Fiji, one of the few areas that remain part of France.
The state of emergency allowed security forces to establish “a calmer and more peaceful situation” around the capital Noumea for the first time since the crisis began on Monday, the French government office on the island said in a statement on Friday.
But there were “fires at the school and two companies,” he said.
The worst violence seen in New Caledonia, a country of 270,000 people, since the problems with free radicals in the 1980s.
A palm-lined boulevard in Noumea was littered with trash and patrolled by armored vehicles, as some locals gathered items to form barricades on Thursday.
The second suspect was killed on Thursday, officials said. Three men, aged between 17 and 36, died in the ordeal.
Prime Minister Jibril Attal said around 1,000 additional security forces would be sent to New Caledonia, adding to the 1,700 already there, while authorities would demand “the strictest punishment for rioters and looters”.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said troops had started arriving on Thursday. The army has been called in to protect New Caledonia’s international airport, which is closed to commercial flights and the main port.
According to authorities, TikTok was banned because it was used by protesters.
French authorities said around 200 of an estimated 5,000 “rioters” had been arrested as part of the state of emergency.
Security forces have detained five independence activists accused of inciting violence under house arrest, authorities said.
The crowd also involved law enforcement officials with “continuous shotgun fire”.
64 injured people are police and security forces.
They wandered around the shops, robbing shelves and throwing away packages.
The president of the Chamber of Commerce (CCI) David Gayen said 80 to 90 percent of the food distribution network in Noumea – from shops to warehouses and wholesalers – was “destroyed”. The SSK said around 200 million euros of damage had been done.
Nicole George, an Australian professor visiting Noumea, told AFP she saw armed residents with improvised weapons manning the barricades.
“This is a very tense situation. People are on edge. They are afraid. They are tired,” he said.
Despite rejecting independence in three referendums, it maintains strong support among the Kanak people, whose ancestors have lived on the island for thousands of years.
Colonized by France from the second half of the 19th century, it has a special status compared to other foreign parts of the country.
French lawmakers on Tuesday pushed through a plan to allow foreigners who moved to New Caledonia at least 10 years ago to vote in regional elections.
Pro-independence forces say this will dilute the votes of Kanaks, who make up 40 percent of the population.
A group of independence movements in the French region of the world, invited by Azerbaijan, released a statement on Tuesday and Thursday’s riots, accusing Darmani of Baku’s “participation”.
Baku immediately rejected the accusation as “baseless”.
The voting reform still needs to be approved by a joint session of the two houses of the French parliament.
French lawmakers will vote on constitutional changes at the end of June if rival New Caledonia fails to reach a new deal, President Emmanuel Macron said.
But a video conference between Macron and members of New Caledonia’s parliament planned for Thursday was canceled because “some players don’t want to talk to each other.”
New Caledonia sees fourth night of troubles but France says Pacific territory ‘calmer’
