A gendarme was killed on Thursday May 16 in New Caledonia following “from an accidental shot”, announces Gérald Darmanin. This death brings to five, including two gendarmes, the number of deaths in the archipelago since the start of the riots on Monday.
The Minister of the Interior promised on France 2 this morning that “in the coming hours, the State will regain total control”while New Caledonia experienced a third consecutive night of riots. He specified that “hundreds of police officers and gendarmes arrive in Nouméa”. “We are going from 1,700 police officers and gendarmes, which was already a lot, to 2,700 police officers and gendarmes by tomorrow evening”he stressed, adding that the government “does not plan to withdraw” of its constitutional reform. Follow our live stream.
The CCAT separatists, a “mafia” organization according to Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior announced Thursday on France 2 the house arrest of “ten mafia leaders of the CCAT”, an independence group and the most radical fringe of the socialist Kanak Liberation Front (FLNKS). This organization “is mafia, violent, commits looting, murders” and is not “not political”he accused.
Around sixty gendarmes and police officers injured. After two nights of deadly conflagration on the archipelago, that of Wednesday May 15 to Thursday May 16 was “a little less violent than the previous one but it remains extremely violent”, assured the High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc, at a press conference. In total, “64 gendarmes and police officers were injured”, he added, estimating that the amount of damage in the Nouméa metropolitan area was “considerable”.
A video interview with New Caledonian elected officials. A state of emergency was declared and Gabriel Attal announced the deployment of the army, while the riots left four dead, including a gendarme, in the archipelago. For his part, Emmanuel Macron proposed to New Caledonian elected officials to have a “exchange by videoconference” Thursday, announced the Elysée. The head of state will then chair a new defense council at 11 a.m.
Four deaths including a police officer killed. At a press conference on Thursday, the High Commissioner of the Republic assured that “three people” suspected of having committed these murders are wanted. “The one who killed the gendarme with a gun and two others who killed three young Caledonians”, he clarified. Louis Le Franc advises them “to go”but he warned that “anyway, we’ll go get them”.
