Interior Minister Darmanin: A major operation involving more than 600 gendarmes, including about a hundred from the GIGN, is currently underway in New Caledonia to fully regain control of the 60 km main road between Nouméa and the airport. Courage and determination to our gendarmes to restore republican order.
The French government is moving to regain full control of the Pacific territory of New Caledonia, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said, as extra security forces arrive in the archipelago to end a week of violent protests by pro-independence groups.
Le Franc said new security deployments, after French President Emmanuel Macron’s government declared a state of emergency, would help reassert control following violence that left behind burned cars, torched stores and improvised barricades along roads.
PS. It's truly disgusting to see them refer to a country only based on their export./Farhad
But France still treating them as a colony.
#France #NewCaledonia #Colinialism #Politics #Oceana
As a result the protesters apparently captured a possible Finnish Sako TRG-42 bolt-action sniper rifle with NightForce scope.
#France #NewCaledonia #Uprising #Colonialism #Politics
Protesters have been seen carrying heavy firearms, with reports of live rounds being fired at police.
Multiple buildings have been set on fire, and several supermarkets have been looted. White French residents have also formed armed groups to confront the Indigenous protesters.
Under the state of emergency, French authorities have imposed a curfew, banned #TikTok, closed schools, and placed restrictions on movement.
They have also deployed an additional 500 police officers, adding to the 1,800 police and gendarmes already on the island.
Protests erupted after French President Emmanuel #Macron introduced plans to reform New Caledonia’s electoral system, which would grant more French residents in the territory voting rights. Protesters believe this would unfavorably shift political representation in the country. The Pacific archipelago, home to the Indigenous #Kanak people, is rich in minerals and has been under French control since 1853.
As a colony the island is a retreat for French citizens
But with 'decolonization' only native Kanak people could vote, barring those arriving from France
Now Paris is empowering French residents to vote after only 10 years
The French Government is using it's army to quash indigenous locals who are rising up against the colonisers.
Authorities also decided to ban video app #TikTok, which the government during a bout of riots on France's mainland last summer said helped rioters organise and amplified the chaos, attracting troublemakers to the streets.
#France #Colonialism #Politics #NewCaledonia #Censorship #Oceana #Uprising
French President #Macron declares a state of emergency in New Caledonia
The situation in the archipelago escalates into an insurrection with numerous blockades, fires, looting and live fire after the adoption of the constitutional reform, which is condemned by the Kanak separatists as a re-colonization of the territory.
At least four people were killed, including a gendarme who was shot. The High Commissioner of the Republic fears a “civil war”.
As anger spread over the French parliament’s decision to approve changes to voting rules on the Pacific archipelago, public buildings were torched, roads blocked and vehicles set alight.
