Twelfth day of riots on the archipelago and start of evacuations of vacationers from the metropolis. While tension remains high this Saturday in New Caledonia, where the mission to “restore order in the days to come” set by President Emmanuel Macron is proving difficult, the evacuation of French tourists has begun.
For French people in mainland France stuck due to the riots, the first flights aboard military aircraft took off from the Magenta aerodrome in Nouméa on Saturday, towards Australia and New Zealand.
“The wait was interminable, since the reopening of the airport is postponed day by day,” one of these tourists told AFP, referring to La Tontouta international airport, closed since the 14 May, and again at least until Tuesday.
Operations against dams
The death toll from the violence rose to seven on Friday, the seventh being a 48-year-old man whose identity has not been communicated, killed by a police officer. Two days after the head of state’s one-day visit, opponents of the electoral reform which provoked the riots from May 13 remain determined to obtain its definitive withdrawal.
Video48-year-old man dies after police shooting in New Caledonia
Emmanuel Macron welcomed the restraint of the police on Thursday. He emphasized to New Caledonian journalists that “our gendarmes and our police officers did not kill anyone”. The next afternoon, the facts disproved it. A police officer, “physically attacked by a group of around fifteen individuals”, fired a “shot to escape” and killed a man, in Dumbéa near Nouméa, according to the account of the prosecutor of the Yves Dupas Republic.
This police officer, who showed “traces of blows on his face” just like a colleague who accompanied him, was placed in police custody, added the prosecutor. Before this homicide, the circumstances of which remain to be clarified, two gendarmes, one of whom was hit by an accidental shot, three Kanaks (natives) and a Caldoche (Caledonian of European origin) had been killed.
The High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia also reported in a press release on Saturday operations against the dams in seven districts of Nouméa, mainly in the north of the city. “The neutralization and cleaning of the roadblocks are carried out under the security of the police and gendarmerie forces,” he described.
