France deployed troops to New Caledonia's ports and international airport, banned TikTok and imposed a state of emergency on Thursday, May 16, after three nights of clashes that have left four dead and hundreds wounded.
Pro-independence, largely Indigenous protests against a French plan to impose new voting rules on its Pacific archipelago have spiralled into the deadliest violence since the 1980s, with a police officer among several killed by gunfire.
French authorities reported a third night of "clashes," though Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents in the streets of the capital Nouméa said it appeared calmer than previous nights.
On major thoroughfares, the torched detritus amassed over four days of unrest was scattered amid fist-size hunks of rock and cement that appeared to have been flung during riots. Armoured vehicles roved the city's palm-lined boulevards, usually thronged with tourists.
White residents in some neighbourhoods sat on garden chairs, manned barricades and strung up improvised white flags, a symbol of their intention to keep peaceful watch over the streets.
As part of a sweeping French response, security forces have placed five suspected ringleaders under house arrest, according to a statement by the high commission, which represents the French state in New Caledonia. House searches will be carried out "in the coming hours," it said. More than 200 "rioters" have been arrested since the clashes broke out, the high commission said.
On Thursday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin accused Azerbaijan of "interference" in the politics of New Caledonia: "This isn't a fantasy... I regret that some of the separatists have made a deal with Azerbaijan," Darmanin told French broadcaster France 2, while adding that "even if there are attempts at interference... France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better."
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told a crisis ministerial meeting that troops had been deployed to secure ports and the international airport, which has been closed to commercial flights. TikTok had been banned because it was being used by rioters, he said. By Thursday morning, AFP could identify fewer than 20 accounts related to the violence on the platform.
The state of emergency enables authorities to enforce travel bans, house arrests and searches. Along with a night curfew, there are bans on gatherings, the carrying of weapons and the sale of alcohol. Nearly 1,800 law enforcement officers have been mobilised and a further 500 will reinforce them, a French government spokeswoman said.
France is establishing an "air bridge," the high commission said, to rapidly move in troop and police reinforcements but also to bring in essential supplies for the population. Hundreds of people, including 64 police, have been wounded, officials said.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron offered to hold talks on Thursday with New Caledonian lawmakers and called for a resumption of political dialogue.
As people took to the streets, France's Assemblée Nationale, 17,000 kilometres away, voted on Tuesday to allow residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to cast ballots. The reform must still be approved by a joint session of both houses of the French parliament.
Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 41 percent of the population. But those favouring the reform argue voter lists have not been updated since 1998 – depriving island residents who arrived after of being able to participate in provincial polls.
Macron has said French lawmakers would vote to definitively adopt the constitutional change by the end of June, unless New Caledonia's opposing sides agree on a new text that "takes into account the progress made and everyone's aspirations."
Pro- and anti-independence parties issued a joint statement calling for "calm and reason" to return to the archipelago, adding that "we are destined to keep living together."