A person died by gunfire on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday during the riots in Nouméa. The High Commissioner of the Republic Louis Le Franc regrets a “deadly spiral”.
The riots continued during the night of Tuesday May 14 to Wednesday May 15 in New Caledonia. This time, a person died by gunshot in Nouméa, announced the High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc: “Of the three wounded admitted to the emergency room, one died, the victim of a gunshot by “Not from a police or gendarmerie shot, but from someone who certainly wanted to defend themselves,” he explained to the press, without giving any further details. Since Monday, this French territory in the South Pacific has been experiencing its most significant violence since the 1980s.
High tensions continue for the second consecutive night in New Caledonia after the vote on the contested reform in the National Assembly. The separatists are making their opposition to the constitutional reform heard, which they consider to be a “forceful move” by the State, in the words of the secretary general of the Caledonian Union (independence party), Dominique Fochi, to AFP. Some, like Kanak senator Robert Xowie, contacted by Le Monde, see this intervention to expand the electorate as a new form of French colonialism. For his part, President Emmanuel Macron indicated that Congress would meet “before the end of June” if no agreement is found before then between the separatists and the loyalists.
The High Commissioner of the Republic also reported, this Wednesday, only 140 arrests in Nouméa. Schools “will remain closed until further notice” specifies the vice-rectorate of New Caledonia. Tontoura airport remains closed to commercial flights for the time being. “The situation is not serious, it is very serious. If the call for calm is not heard, there will be many deaths in the Nouméa metropolitan area today. We have entered a spiral dangerous, a mortal spiral” regretted Louis Le Franc during a press conference. “If necessary I would call on the military forces, by requesting assistance,” he said.