“The night was calm” in New Caledonia. This is what High Commissioner Louis Le Franc told AFP this Thursday morning. “There was no additional damage but so much was destroyed,” he argued. It is on the political level that things are moving. Emmanuel Macron arrived in New Caledonia this Thursday morning, local time, for a visit expected to last 12 hours.
The President of the Republic is accompanied by three senior officials familiar with the matter to “set up a mission” in order to renew dialogue with separatists and non-separatists.
Information to remember
⇒ Macron calls for “appeasement” but without institutional “backtracking”
⇒ The New Caledonian government denounces “intolerable” inflation in businesses
⇒ Cyberattack: Anssi calls for “extreme caution” regarding the origin
Macron calls for “appeasement” but without institutional “backtracking”
Emmanuel Macron called this Thursday at the start of his visit to New Caledonia for “constructive appeasement” and the search for a political “solution”, but without returning to the result of the three referendums which confirmed the maintenance of the overseas territory in the Republic. “My desire (…) is to be alongside the population so that as quickly as possible, there is a return to peace, calm, security. This is the priority of priorities,” declared the head of state as soon as he got off the plane at Nouméa airport.
While since the start of the riots on the French Pacific archipelago, six people have been killed, including two mobile gendarmes, he observed a minute of silence as a preamble to a meeting with local elected officials and economic players. Arriving alongside ministers Gérald Darmanin (Interior), Sébastien Lecornu (Armies) and Marie Guévenoux (Overseas), Emmanuel Macron promised “decisions” and “announcements” at “the end of this day”, even if he assured that he had “no limit” of time on site.
The president underlined that “many populations are suffering today”, citing the difficulties of access to care, but also “supply”, ten days after an eruption of unprecedented violence on the archipelago for almost 40 years, which still leave entire neighborhoods difficult to access. He also announced that the approximately 3,000 members of the security forces deployed in New Caledonia in the face of the riots would remain “as long as necessary, even during the Olympic and Paralympic Games” in Paris which end at the beginning of September. While the government has established a state of emergency in this territory at the antipodes of France, the president said he was rather unfavorable to an extension beyond the deadline of Monday May 27, which would require a law.
The New Caledonian government denounces “intolerable” inflation in businesses
Many businesses have taken advantage of the security crisis shaking New Caledonia to apply excessive prices, including on regulated products, the local government denounced this Thursday. This intends to impose “control measures”.
“Faced with the current situation, it has been noted that certain traders are taking advantage of the circumstances to exaggerately increase the prices of their products, some of which are regulated, making this practice completely illegal,” the collegial government wrote in a press release. “This practice is all the more unacceptable and intolerable” as “solidarity and collective responsibility must take precedence”, he added, while fears of food and medicine shortages run through the archipelago.
Cyberattack: “no long-term consequences” according to Anssi
The cyberattack that hit New Caledonia on Tuesday will have “no long-term consequences”, the French Computer Security Agency (Anssi) told AFP on Wednesday. This attack, “by denial of service”, lasted “a few hours” against the telecoms operator of the archipelago, said Anssi. “There is no intrusion into the information systems of the operator concerned, nor of its various clients.”
This cyberattack constitutes “nothing very serious”, a source close to the government had previously assured, and its link with Russia, mentioned by BFMTV, has “nothing proven”. Asked about its origin, Anssi explained that, “on the general attribution of cyberattacks, one must always be extremely careful” and that “this is even more true with denial of service attacks.” . “There is no claim to our knowledge. We will have to let justice do its work,” she added.
Caledonian nickel: Eramet mining sites at a standstill
All the mining sites operated in New Caledonia by Eramet, one of the three major nickel operators on the island, have been “at a standstill for more than a week”, AFP learned from the group. French company whose subsidiary Société Le Nickel (SLN) is the leading private employer on the island.
“All the mining sites operated by SLN in the territory have been shut down for more than a week, the security conditions are too degraded to continue normal activity,” a spokesperson for the company told AFP. ‘Eramet in Paris.
The operator deplores an attack, but “only one” which dates back to last Wednesday evening and which targeted the Kouaoua factory, on the east coast. A fire broke out at the mine conveyor, a conveyor belt taking ore from the mine to the seaside loading dock, about 11 kilometers through the bush. An installation regularly targeted during each outbreak of violence on the island.