Europe 1 with AFP / DELPHINE MAYEUR / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
5:20 p.m., September 21, 2024
The public prosecutor of Noumea, Yves Dupas, announced that two people wanted for attempted murder of gendarmes in New Caledonia were taken into custody after spontaneously presenting themselves to the gendarmerie. They are suspected of having fired firearms at the mobile gendarmes.
Two men were summoned as part of investigations opened in New Caledonia into the violence that shook this Pacific archipelago. They were taken into custody after “spontaneously presenting themselves to the gendarmerie”, the Noumea public prosecutor said on Saturday. They are accused of “a series of shootings with firearms at the mobile gendarmes”, acts that were allegedly committed in May and June and which gave rise to the opening of a judicial investigation by the public prosecutor’s office.
A third person, who is accused of receiving stolen goods, also presented himself to the police. He received a summons to appear in court, before being released after his police custody, the press release added.
Nine people still wanted
Prosecutor Yves Dupas finally assures that he has “committed” to the great chiefs of Saint-Louis on the fact that “customary representatives will be able to provide moral and material support to the young people of the tribe who are incarcerated in the Noumea penitentiary center, as part of the procedures initiated against them”. Nine other individuals also remain the subject of a search warrant.
Violence linked to the independence movement
The violence in New Caledonia, which began on May 13 in connection with the pro-independence protest against a reform of the electoral body, has left 13 dead, including two gendarmes, and caused hundreds of injuries. The material damage is estimated at 2.2 billion euros. Although the tension has decreased since mid-July, the southern region of Grande Terre remains difficult to access, with more than 300 shootings against the police recorded in four months.
