In New Caledonia, the final blocked district of the town of Nouméa recaptured | EUROtoday

Published on : 05/31/2024 – 10:54

2 minutes

In New Caledonia, a police operation was carried out on Friday May 31 “successfully” within the final district of the town of Nouméa which had not but come underneath the management of the police, two and a half weeks after the beginning of riots within the archipelago, introduced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Other neighborhoods, nevertheless, stay blocked within the Nouméa metropolitan space, recalled the president of the South province, Sonia Backès, primary consultant of the loyalist camp.

“A major police operation has just taken place, successfully, in the Rivière-Salée district, the last one in Nouméa which was not under control,” wrote the Minister of the Interior in a message on X.

This operation mobilized 400 members of the police, the High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia instructed the press.

Members of the elite models of the police (Raid) and the gendarmerie (GIGN) took half, based on Gérald Darmanin, who welcomed “the arrest of 12 individuals and the removal of 26 roadblocks”.

The Rivière-Salée district, within the north of the commune of Nouméa, was blocked by “numerous roadblocks, manned by dangerous individuals, and several snipers had been spotted”, a police supply instructed AFP, referring to a “complex security”.

“The State must deploy everywhere”

However, different neighborhoods stay blocked within the city space, within the municipalities of Mont-Dore, Païta and Dumbéa, Sonia Backès instructed the press.

“The State has the means to behave, we noticed it in Rivière-Salée, it’s pressing to do it wherever it’s needed. (…) The State should deploy in all places to liberate the neighborhoods “, she insisted.

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According to an AFP journalist on site, another roadblock was being dismantled by the gendarmes on Friday in La Tamoa, not far from La Tontouta international airport, which remains closed to commercial flights until Monday morning.

The vote for a constitutional reform expanding the electorate, accused by the separatists of marginalizing the indigenous Kanak population, triggered the most serious political crisis in New Caledonia since the 1980s, accompanied by violence, looting, damage and road blockades.

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With AFP