the State launched its operation to regain management of the island | EUROtoday

The state goes on the offensive. He launched his reconquest operation in New Caledonia on Sunday May 19 to attempt to “retake complete control” of the territory, first with a large-scale operation by the gendarmes on the street between Nouméa and the worldwide airport, after six died in six days of riots.

The anger of the separatists, provoked by a reform of the electoral physique, triggered a cycle of violence which modified the face of the archipelago, after days and nights of fires, clashes and blockades.

In the absence of flights to and from New Caledonia, suspended since Tuesday, the French govt has given precedence to the route between Nouméa and its worldwide airport.

A convoy of 600 gendarmes

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin introduced the beginning on Sunday morning of a “major operation of more than 600 gendarmes, including around a hundred from the GIGN”. This ought to make it attainable, he stated, to “completely regain control of the 60 km main road”.

The operation consisted of sending a convoy from Nouméa to take away all obstacles on this route. It is made up, amongst different issues, of gendarmerie armored automobiles and development tools which clear the passage. However, sure roadblocks eliminated by the convoy have been re-established as quickly because it left.

AFP journalists famous that at noon on Sunday, in Nouméa and neighboring cities, visitors for individuals who wished to go away the town in direction of the northwest remained hampered. Independentists filter the passage by quite a few roadblocks, product of stones and numerous gadgets specifically.

Although these journalists have been capable of attain La Tontouta airport within the afternoon, they needed to cease at numerous roadblocks, a few of which have been manned by males armed with sticks or bladed weapons.

One of them, in Tamoa, expressed his intention to remain in any respect prices: “We are ready to go all the way, otherwise what’s the point?”

New reinforcements anticipated

Restoring this circulation is all of the extra urgent since New Zealand introduced on Sunday that it had requested France to have the ability to land planes, with the intention to repatriate its nationals.

“We are ready to take off, and are awaiting authorization from the French authorities to know when these flights can take place safely,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters stated in a press release.

On Saturday, the federal government of New Caledonia estimated that 3,200 folks have been stranded within the absence of flights, both as a result of they might not go away the archipelago or as a result of they might not attain it.

The violence left six useless, the most recent on Saturday afternoon, a Caldoche (Caledonian of European origin) in Kaala-Gomen, within the North province. The different 5 useless are two gendarmes and three Kanak civilians, within the Nouméa metropolitan space.

230 rioters arrested in a single week

In a press launch on Sunday morning, the High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia, nevertheless, reported a “calmer” evening.

“The State is mobilizing to ensure the protection of the population and reestablish republican order,” added the illustration of the central State. She introduced the upcoming arrival of “several hundred internal security, logistical and operational support and civil security forces”, along with the reinforcements already despatched.

“In total, 230 rioters were arrested” in almost every week, stated the High Commission.

Regaining management by drive must be a long-term job for the police. The violence in some neighborhoods each evening reveals that the rioters stay very decided.

“The reality is that there are (…) lawless zones (…) which are held by armed bands, separatist bands, the CCAT. And in these places, they destroy everything,” said the vice-president of the Southern province of New Caledonia, Philippe Blaise, on BFMTV on Saturday.

The Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT) is a radical independence organization accused of inciting greater violence.

Nouméa “besieged”

New example of the unrest during the night from Saturday to Sunday: according to the public television channel Nouvelle-Calédonie La 1ère, the media library in the Rivière salée district of Nouméa was set on fire.

Questioned by AFP, Nouméa town hall responded on Sunday morning that it had “no manner in the intervening time to confirm it, because the neighborhood is inaccessible”.

The mayor of Nouméa, Sonia Lagarde (Renaissance), estimated on Saturday on BFMTV that the situation was “removed from a return to appeasement”. “Can we say that we are in a besieged city? Yes, I think we can say that,” she added.

The exceptional state of emergency measures are maintained, namely the curfew between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. (9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in Paris), the ban on gatherings, the transport of weapons and the sale of alcohol, and the banning of the TikTok application.

Read alsoBan on TikTok in New Caledonia: the underside of an “unprecedented” measure

For the population, traveling, buying basic necessities and seeking healthcare becomes more difficult every day. Fewer and fewer businesses are able to open, and the numerous obstacles to traffic increasingly complicate the logistics of supplying them, especially in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

On Sunday morning, the Southern province, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the population, announced that all schools would remain closed during the week. “This time should make it possible to finish securing the educational establishments, their access and to take stock of the damage in order to find as quickly as possible the conditions for a resumption of teaching, the following week, where this will be possible,” explained the province.

The constitutional reform which ignited the powder aims to expand the electorate during the provincial elections, at the risk of marginalizing “much more the indigenous Kanak folks”, in accordance with the separatists. Adopted on Wednesday by the deputies, after the senators, the textual content should nonetheless be voted on by the parliamentarians assembly in Congress, on an undetermined date.

With AFP