New Caledonia focused by a cyberattack of “unprecedented strength” earlier than Macron’s arrival | EUROtoday

After greater than every week of riots, Emmanuel Macron is anticipated, Wednesday May 22, for a shock go to to New Caledonia with the target of resuming the thread of dialogue and accelerating the return to order in Nouméa, the place two colleges and a automotive dealership had been burned in a single day.

The go to of the Head of State was introduced Tuesday within the Council of Ministers, as requests multiply for postponement of the draft constitutional legislation on the voters, rejected by the separatists.

In the archipelago, the night time from Tuesday to Wednesday “was calmer than the previous one despite two fires in the urban area of ​​Nouméa”, reported the High Commission of the Republic in a press launch. According to the municipality of Nouméa, interviewed by AFP, two colleges and 300 automobiles from a dealership went up in smoke.

Emmanuel Macron, whose aircraft took off early Tuesday night based on the Élysée, should arrive Wednesday night or Thursday morning (native time) within the French archipelago within the South Pacific to arrange a “mission” there, the door mentioned. authorities spokesperson Prisca Thevenot, with out offering additional particulars.

Simultaneous sending of “millions of emails”

“Very shortly after the announcement” of its arrival, New Caledonia was additionally focused by a cyberattack “of unprecedented force” geared toward “saturating the Caledonian network”, indicated throughout a convention of press Christopher Gygès, member of the Caledonian collegial authorities.

The assault, consisting of the simultaneous sending of “millions of emails”, was stopped “before there was significant damage”, he mentioned.

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In a rich neighborhood within the south of Nouméa spared by the riots, Jean, 57, has been taking turns together with his neighbors for every week on a barricade meant to stop attainable intrusions.

The president's arrival is “good news”, he believes: “The situation is completely blocked, we must hope that this will allow people to calm down, that a way out will be found.”

On a dam in Dumbéa, a pro-independence stronghold west of Nouméa, Mike, 52, additionally needs “Macron to arrive to see what is happening”, whereas repeating that “we remain in the opposition: it’s no to thawing.”

“I don’t understand why our fate must be discussed by people who don’t even live here,” he laments.

“Too early” for an assessment

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, very involved in the Caledonian issue during his time at Matignon (2017-2020), said he hoped for “meet” announcements from the Head of State.

“The scenario is extremely unhappy and harmful. France, which has an advanced relationship with its colonial historical past, has a risk of discovering an unique answer, even whether it is harder than three months in the past,” he said. -he added during a public meeting in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

Nine days after the start of the most serious violence affecting the archipelago in nearly 40 years, the situation, although calmer, remains precarious and entire neighborhoods still difficult to access.

On Wednesday morning, fires were visible in several sectors of the Nouméa metropolitan area, including the Ducos industrial zone, noted an AFP journalist.

It is “a lot too early” to make an overall assessment of the damage, because there are still neighborhoods where agents do not go, the administration of the city of Nouméa explained to AFP, while the High Commission indicated in its press release that “greater than 90 dams have already been neutralized and are progressively being cleaned.”

Since the beginning of the violence, six folks have been killed, together with two cell gendarmes. Some 84 law enforcement officials and gendarmes had been additionally injured, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin instructed the deputies, who noticed a minute of silence on Tuesday in tribute to the lifeless.

The police made 276 arrests, together with 248 resulting in police custody, mentioned Gérald Darmanin, who can be in New Caledonia with President Macron. The Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, can be touring.

An indication of the issue in getting the safety scenario below management, the archipelago's worldwide airport will stay closed to industrial flights till Saturday morning.

Australia and New Zealand started on Tuesday to evacuate their nationals trapped by the violence, round 100 having already “returned to their territories thanks to flights chartered by their authorities”, based on the High Commission.

“Postpone” the reform

The distinctive state of emergency measures are maintained: nighttime curfew, ban on gatherings, the transport of weapons, the sale of alcohol and the TikTok utility.

Requested by defenders of freedoms, the Council of State granted, on Tuesday, 24 further hours to the federal government to justify the blocking of the social community and supply proof of the function attributed to it by the authorities within the riots.

On the political entrance, the principle non-independence figures of the archipelago known as for continued examination of the contested constitutional reform, which have to be adopted earlier than the top of June by the Congress in Versailles.

Its withdrawal could be “an extremely serious error” which might “prove the thugs, the looters and the rioters right”, judged Tuesday the deputy (Renaissance) of New Caledonia, Nicolas Metzdorf.

But a number of non-independence elected officers known as for the venture to be placed on maintain, time to resume dialogue. This is the case of Sonia Lagarde, mayor of Nouméa, or of the Calédonie Ensemble get together whose president, Philippe Gomes, believes that “the constitutional revision will have to be postponed”.

Calls have multiplied, from the left to the far proper together with the bulk, to demand a postponement of this reform which might have the consequence of marginalizing the voices of the indigenous Kanak group, based on the separatists.

With AFP