Since Monday, the territory of New Caledonia has been the scene of nightly riots which led to the death of five people including two gendarmes, after the uprising of separatists against an electoral reform passed in Paris. A sixth person died this Saturday, May 18 in the morning after shots were fired at a roadblock erected by rioters.
Information to remember
⇒ One dead and two injured this Saturday after exchanges of fire
⇒ Several parliamentarians request a dialogue mission
⇒ Passage of the Olympic flame in New Caledonia canceled
One dead and two injured after exchanges of fire
A man died and two others were injured this Saturday in New Caledonia, in an exchange of gunfire on a roadblock erected by rioters, we learned from sources close to the matter. General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the gendarmerie in New Caledonia, confirmed to AFP “one dead and two injured in Kaala-Gomen”, a commune in the North province. The events occurred at 2:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. in Paris), according to two sources close to the matter. According to one of them, shots were exchanged when two Caldoches from the same family wanted to pass a roadblock: the father died, his son and a Kanak were injured.
“People are dying because of blockages,” deplores the local government
New Caledonia is on a “destructive path”, lamented this Saturday the government of the French Pacific archipelago in the grip of violence, where “people are dying” due to lack of care, due to the roadblocks erected by the rioters. “People are already dying, not because of armed conflicts, but because they have no access to care, no access to food,” the minister said at a press conference in Nouméa. local civil service, Vaimu’a Muliava.
“There are people on dialysis, who should have been on dialysis, who have died,” he said. “Free the roads, let the doctors and nurses go and save people. Let people move around,” urged Vaimu’a Muliava, on the sixth day of this crisis. “One more day is one day too many,” he said, believing that the New Caledonian population is “killing each other.” Despite the numerous stores and businesses burned or looted, the roads blocked, New Caledonia is not the victim of “shortage”, also assured this member of the local government, “but (it) will become so if we continue on this destructive path.
Several parliamentarians request a dialogue mission
Yaël Braun-Pivet, Gérard Larcher and several parliamentarians from all political stripes requested on Friday, during a meeting in Matignon on New Caledonia, a dialogue mission. But the consensus seemed less clear on a postponement of the convocation of the Congress, according to several parliamentary sources. The Congress, bringing together deputies and senators, must validate “before the end of June” according to Emmanuel Macron, an electoral reform contested by the separatists, at the origin of an outbreak of violence on the archipelago.
The Prime Minister also indicated, according to Sacha Houlié, the president of the Law Commission, that a text was “in preparation” to extend the state of emergency, which lasts for 12 days, but that the goal was not to use it if the situation by the end of the long weekend, Monday, “had improved”.
Passing of the Olympic flame canceled
During this same meeting in Matignon in New Caledonia, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, also announced that the Olympic flame would not pass on June 11 as planned in this territory, according to consistent sources.