President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has declared a state of emergency to quell deadly riots in New Caledonia, which erupted following a vote in the National Assembly of France allowing those who have lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections.
A 12-day state of emergency has been imposed by French President French President Emmanuel Macron, following deadly riots that have engulfed France’s Indo-Pacific territory of New Caledonia, beginning on Wednesday.
Tuesday night’s confrontations with the police resulted in four fatalities and numerous injuries, along with accounts of looting and completely burned buildings. A vote in the National Assembly of France, which permits those who have lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections, set off the chaos.
However, the native Kanak people of the archipelago have long been incensed about what they see to be a power grab that benefits the conquerors’ descendants who wish to stay in France. These ethnic conflicts have been building for a long time, and this week they finally broke out.
Roughly 270,000 people are living in the French territory, which is ten time zones ahead of Paris and located east of Australia. “To restore order in the shortest time possible” is the stated goal of the new state of emergency, per a statement from parliament.
Numerous reports claim that TikTok has been banned and that French military personnel have been sent in to quell the pro-independence rioting; nevertheless, Paris officials have attempted to minimize these drastic steps.
According to the AP, “Asked if France could deploy the French military to the island, Thevenot said it’s not the army’s job to maintain order but that it is helping with the transport of police reinforcements.”
A montage of the devastation and raging fires:
Later on, however, the AFP news agency reported that army forces from France had been stationed at both the main airport and the ports in New Caledonia.
According to the president of New Caledonia, Louis Mapou, three young Kanak indigenous people and a wounded French gendarmerie police officer were among the dead from the previous day’s unrest. Numerous police officers and protestors have suffered injuries.
“The moblie gendarme seriously wounded by a bullet in New Caledonia has just died,” Darmanin announced. “Our thoughts are with his family, those close to him and his friends. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies violence. Order will be restored.”
To help restore order, Paris has confirmed that an additional 500 French police officers had been dispatched to the region.
In Noumea, the capital, all public buildings, including schools, are still closed. Numerous structures have suffered damage or have caught fire.
President Macron canceled a trip abroad, indicating how seriously France is treating the situation, according to recent reporting in The New York Times:
The French authorities have undertaken what they called a “massive” mobilization of security forces since violent protests broke out in New Caledonia this week over a proposed amendment to the French Constitution that would change local voting rules in the territory. A vote in France’s Parliament approving the amendment on Tuesday ignited riots overnight that left four people dead, including a law enforcement officer.
As per additional information:
The French government said that more than 1,800 security officers were already in the territory and that 500 reinforcements would arrive in the next 24 hours.
At a crisis meeting, Mr. Attal said that the army was being deployed to secure ports and the airport.
The French president’s office released a statement after a crisis security meeting convened by Macron on Wednesday, expressing “strong emotion” for the deaths caused by the rioting.
In order to guarantee that law and order are restored, the statement went on to say that “All violence is intolerable and will be subject to a relentless response.”
As reported earlier by GreatGameIndia, France, and Germany will fund India’s urban infrastructure mission following their previous cooperation on the CITIIS 2.0 program.
