A man was killed overnight in northern New Caledonia as a thousand men landed in Nouméa to reinforce security. In Paris, major political maneuvers began to try to get out of the chaos.
The situation is still far from being stabilized in New Caledonia. After six days of unprecedented violence, security forces reported this Saturday another death in armed clashes, the sixth death in nearly a week.
The person was killed in an exchange of fire against one of several makeshift barricades blocking the island’s roads, a security official said. Two other people were seriously injured during the clash, the official said, confirming French media reports. The official said the exchange of fire broke out during a blockade in the north of the main island, at Kaala-Gomen.
The world and other French media reported that the person killed was a man and that his son was among the injured.
This death comes as significant security reinforcements arrived in Nouméa on Friday evening. Some 1,000 men in total who have already joined the 1,700 staff already present on site.
Two police officers were among those who died earlier this week in the unrest that prompted the Paris government to impose a state of emergency on the archipelago to fight against armed clashes, looting, arson and other outbursts of violence.
The unrest erupted Monday following protests against electoral reforms opposed by independence supporters who have long demanded self-determination.
Alongside the measures taken to restore order on the ground, the government is now seeking a political solution. Sign of urgency, it was Prime Minister Gabriel Attal who took charge of the matter to the detriment of his Minister of the Interior.
In the background, the future of the new electoral law which ignited the powder after three referendums lost by the separatists.
According to Senator LR from New Caledonia, Georges Naturel, a large majority of French parliamentarians are now proposing a pause in the constitutional reform planned as an extension of the electoral law.
But “it is now up to the President of the Republic to make the final decision,” recalls the senator. The elected official also announces that the Prime Minister will go there “as soon as possible”.