Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced Wednesday the deployment of the army to “secure” the ports and airport of New Caledonia, after two nights of riots which left four dead, including a gendarme, in the shaken archipelago by the revolt of the separatists against an electoral reform voted by Parliament.
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“ Soldiers from the armed forces are deployed to secure New Caledonia’s ports and airport », indicated the Prime Minister at the opening of an interministerial crisis unit at the Ministry of the Interior. The high commissioner on this territory, Louis Le Franc, who had requested the reinforcement of the army to protect the Nouméa airport, for his part “ announced curfew and banned TikTok », specified Gabriel Attal.
The state of emergency, requested by Emmanuel Macron, has been in force since 8:00 p.m. Paris time (5:00 a.m. Thursday in Nouméa). Having canceled a trip planned for Thursday morning to the EPR site in Flamanville (Manche), the Head of State will chair a “follow-up meeting” on the New Caledonian situation.
The head of government assured Wednesday that the state of emergency “ will be decisive for the return to calm “. Because ” the situation in New Caledonia is serious “, he judged. “ For several days, an outbreak of unprecedented violence has raged, with looting, fires, physical violence on a rare scale – and three deaths among residents. » to which is added the death of a gendarme, he said.
Four house arrests
The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin carried out the first four house arrests on members of the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), the most radical fringe of the Socialist Kanak Liberation Front (FLNKS), according to a close source folder.
According to Sonia Backès, former Secretary of State and main figure in the non-independence camp, the third night of riots was less virulent than the previous ones. “ A much quieter night almost everywhere “, she wrote on her Facebook page, “ due to the exceptional mobilization of Caledonians who protect their neighborhood (…) and the much greater presence of law enforcement ” notably.
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