One person was killed in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, where unrest by supporters of the island’s independence has continued for 13 days.
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“A 48-year-old man was shot dead by police,” the prosecutor’s office in the island’s capital Noumea said.
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According to her, a group of 15 people attacked two policemen when they were inspecting one of the city’s communes in their car.
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The prosecutor’s office began an investigation into “intentional murder by a person in a position of public power.” The shooting officer was taken into custody.
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The day before, French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the island, said that 3,000 police officers, 130 people from the special gendarmerie squad, armored vehicles and helicopters would remain on the island to maintain order. Noumea International Airport will remain closed until Tuesday 28 May.
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Macron gave political parties on the island several weeks to reach an agreement on electoral reform for local elections, promising not to force constitutional reform of the electoral body and to monitor the results of negotiations in a month.
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The President held talks with loyalists and pro-independence parties in turn, but was unable to organize joint negotiations between all parties.
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New Caledonia is of strategic importance to France, which wants to increase its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, and also because of its rich resources of nickel, an important mineral used, among other things, for the production of electric cars, which Paris intends to significantly increase.
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A peaceful demonstration in the capital of the territory of Noumea on May 13 turned into pogroms, shops, pharmacies, gas stations and cars were burned and looted. Hundreds of people were injured, including dozens of law enforcement officers.
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Residents are protesting against a constitutional change being considered in Paris that would provide voting rights to participate in local elections to people who have lived in New Caledonia for more than 10 years. The protests are being organized by the island’s pro-independence indigenous Kanaki people, who fear they will be left in the minority if voting rights are given to some of the island’s European population who have moved there over the past 20 years. Today, only those who were on the electoral register at the time of the 1998 Noumea Agreement, which gave the French overseas territory a higher degree of autonomy, and their children have the right to vote.
