The warning had been passed on through families, traditional leaders and telephones that the gendarmerie had given to the ten people still wanted by the police and who are hiding among the population at the Saint-Louis tribe, south of Noumea. If they did not surrender, they would end up being arrested during one of the special operations carried out almost every night, in particular by the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN). With the risks that this entails.
In the early hours of Thursday, September 19, Johan Kaidine, 29, and Samuel Moekia, 30, died in this pro-independence stronghold during gunfire with law enforcement, several sources confirmed to Le Monde, bringing the death toll to thirteen since the violence began in May. They are suspected of being among the perpetrators of the approximately 330 gunshots fired by the police on the road that passes in front of the tribe since the start of the riots, and of having participated in the sixty or so “car-jackings,” armed car thefts, that have taken place in the same location since June.
Justified operations
These drastic measures are justified “by the insecurity that reigns on the Saint-Louis crossing”, explains General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the gendarmerie in New Caledonia. On May 15, it was to the south of the tribe, at the La Coulée bridge, that a young 22-year-old gendarme, Nicolas Molinari, was killed by a bullet to the head.
photo credit SIRPA.
