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France annexed New Caledonia in 1853 and gave the colony the status of overseas territory in 1946. New Caledonia is the world’s No. 3 nickel miner but the sector is in crisis and one-in-five residents live below the poverty threshold.
The island lies some 20,000 km away from mainland France, and some 1500 km east of Australia. It has longed been rocked by pro-independence movements. The past week’s violence has been the worst there in 40 years.
The opposition in Paris, former French prime ministers, and leaders of other Pacific islands have also said Macron should scrap or suspend the electoral reform, which parliament in Paris adopted last Tuesday.
Vanuatu Foreign Minister Matai Seremaiah urged France to “do the right thing, to resolve all outstanding decolonisation issues” and seriously engage with Kanak leaders.
Evacuations
Some 108 Australians and other tourists landed in Brisbane on two government flights, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on X. A Defence Force plane landed in Auckland with some 50 people on board, the New Zealand Herald reported.
More flights were expected in coming days to evacuate some 500 French and foreign tourists in total, France’s High Commission in New Caledonia said.
As she arrived in Brisbane, Australian tourist Mary Hatten said she had been largely confined to her hotel. “The place was just in a mess,” she told the ABC.
Chris Salmon, who works in the mining industry in New Caledonia, hugged his family and said he was relieved to have left the French island. “It feels all pretty awful, pretty senseless,” he said.
The airport, shut since the start of the riots, remained closed for commercial flights.
Burnt cars are lined up after unrest that erupted following protests over voting reforms in Noumea, New Caledonia.Credit: AP
Around 3200 people were waiting to leave or enter New Caledonia after commercial flights were cancelled last week due to the unrest, the local government has said.
Australian officials said passengers were being prioritised based on need. Those left behind were frustrated, said Australian Benen Huntley, honeymooning with wife Emily.
“My wife is quite upset, we just want to get home,” he said in a telephone interview. “We opened our hotel door this morning and you could just see an enormous billow of smoke coming off a building in the distance.”
More than 1000 gendarmes and police from France were on patrol and another 600 would be added, France’s High Commission said.
Three of the six people killed in the unrest were young Kanaks shot by armed civilians, and there have been confrontations between Kanak protesters and armed self-defence groups or civilian militias formed to protect themselves.
“The French government doesn’t know how to control people here,” said Viro Xulue, part of a community group providing social assistance to other Kanaks.
The situation on the ground was improving but much more needed to be done, French government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said.