In New Caledonia, one dead and two injured in an exchange of fire were announced on May 18, six days after the start of the riots. For two days, the police have retaken part of Nouméa and its suburbs. But many neighborhoods are out of control and the priority is now to lift the blockades.
This is the case of the popular district of Magenta, says our correspondent in New Caledonia, Charlotte Mannevy. Last night, violent clashes between police and rioters. Since this Saturday morning there has been an uneasy calm, so residents are going out to get supplies. The CRS, arriving as reinforcements from Marseille, took place early this Saturday morning on the Magenta roundabout. On the road, the traces of the clashes: shopping carts and other burned trash cans. The post office was set on fire. In the midst of this chaos, Hélène and her son take advantage of the lull to resupply: “ At night, there are always explosions. The children are afraid… »
After 48 hours of non-stop fighting, a routine seems to have been established. During the day, police and rioters observed each other, before clashes resumed at nightfall, as Nicolas recounts: “ It starts from curfew. There are the police, there are… Yesterday, there were cops who were shot over there. They fired into the air, there were young people who fired into the air into a barrage. »
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The neighborhood supermarket was miraculously preserved. It reopened its doors this morning. On the sidewalk, behind the CRS who scan the avenue, hundreds of people are patiently waiting in line.
“ Hello ladies and gentlemen, you have 5 to 10 minutes please, think of the people outside waiting in the sun. » Jocelyne regulates the influx of customers. “ That way, it stays calm. I said: we have to open so that people can come and buy what they need, because if we close, it will be a mess and then we will arrive tomorrow and there will no longer be a store. »
When checking out, Annie, 81, has the bare necessities in her shopping cart: “ Mash, rice, cassoulet and milk. It was a total surprise. We have never seen this in Caledonia. However, I was born in Caledonia. 1984 is nothing compared to that. » The riots awakened memories of the civil war of the 1980s when at least 90 people died.
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Clearing the roads, a priority
The municipal workshops in the capital, where all the equipment needed to repair the damage was located, were set on fire and, this Saturday, numerous roadblocks are still preventing residents from traveling to go shopping or to go to the hospital. The priority now is to clear the roads. Because although the nighttime riots have been less violent for two nights, a major problem remains: the mobility of residents.
The two roads that allow you to enter and exit Nouméa – where nearly 100,000 people live – are almost impassable because of numerous roadblocks built and manned by the rioters. “ The priority, it seems to me, today is to clear the entrances and exits from the city. We are witnessing dams which have been booby-trapped with gas bottles, which is not without posing problems of access to the medipoles which are located in the peripheral commune, in Dumbéa, and where major problems are beginning to arise. for people who are on dialysis, and we have a lot of them. Today we have situations that are complicated, there are very strong traumas, there are people who are extremely afraid, who are confined to their homes, who are subjected to threats, even houses which have burned down. There is a state of emergency, but I say that we are in a state of siege and I am very, very worried”, explains Sonia Lagarde, the mayor of Nouméa, reached by telephone by Pierre Olivier.
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Roadblocks which also prevent access to the few supermarkets which have not been looted or burned, to obtain food and basic necessities. Barriers which also hamper the supply of businesses while containers have arrived at the port of Nouméa.
However, a thousand law enforcement officers were sent as reinforcements from the mainland, but the roadblocks persist, because the primary mission of these reinforcements was first and foremost the return to calm and the securing of strategic points. “ In the immediate future, we don’t really realize it, because in reality, the reinforcements arrived to rest the existing police forces, so in terms of numbers, we didn’t see the difference “, says Jean-Dominique Pinçon, the chief of staff of the mayor of Dumbéa, the second largest city in New Caledonia. “ We’ve had worse, but it’s still very tense. In Dumbéa, there was damage, cars burned, there was an attempt to burn down the town hall, but the fire was quickly contained. We also had attempts on stores and burglaries. Fortunately, it rained, which still reduced the number of abuses a little. This is roughly, in a nutshell, what happened last night. In the morning, we have two or three complicated neighborhoods, the others are back to normal a little. The north of Nouméa, we will say that it is the epicenter of the agglomeration where it is really very very tense. So, it’s often young people aged 15 to 25-30 who come from all over New Caledonia. They arrive, they are often armed, they throw Molotov cocktails, they burn cars, sometimes try to burn houses… »
“We are all losers today”
This Saturday, during a press conference, the government of New Caledonia asked the rioters to remove these blockades, this has now become the priority on the island. “ Nobody won, said Vaimu’a Muliava. We are all losers today, because, whether we are separatists or non-separatists, or whether we really don’t care about politics, we die. We die because we don’t clear the roads. This has been going on for six days and each day that passes is a day that can see the eyes of a grandmother, of a disabled person who is not treated, close permanently. And are we going to continue like this, my country? Free up the roads, let doctors, nurses, caregivers go and save people, let people move around. Peace is not an option, it is a duty. »