New Caledonia woke up on Wednesday, May 15, to the havoc wreaked by a second consecutive night of riots, which were denounced as "unworthy" by President Emmanuel Macron. Meanwhile, MPs in Paris had voted overnight on a constitutional review concerning the French overseas territory's electorate, the issue at the root of the New Caledonian pro-independence faction's anger.
On Tuesday night, two people died in Nouméa, the territory's capital city, during the wave of violence that has shaken the archipelago since Monday, according to the French High Commissioner for New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc. One was the victim of "a gunshot" in Nouméa, the French state representative said at a press conference, asserting that it was "not a shot fired by the police or the gendarmerie, but by someone who certainly wanted to defend himself." The "circumstances" surrounding the fatal shooting remain to be "clarified," said Gérald Darmanin, the interior and French overseas territories minister, speaking on the radio Wednesday. A second person was killed on Wednesday, the high commissioner's office said, without giving any further details. Additionally, a young pregnant woman who was unable to reach a hospital lost her baby.
While this second night of rioting was fraught with several fires, looting and firefights, including against law enforcement officers, the unfreezing of New Caledonia's electorate, which had just been passed by the Assemblée Nationale, "does not deserve war," declared Le Franc. "The situation is insurrectionary. We're headed straight for civil war," said the French state representative, calling for "imperative calm." "This watchword applies to the whole population, to those who live in entrenched camps, to all the rioters who are in the Nouméa conurbation (...) and who destroy town halls and food centers, and forcibly evacuate people from their homes, only to burn them down," he added.
"Hundreds" of people were injured, including "around 100" police and gendarmes, Darmanin said on Wednesday. Among them were 47 gendarmes and 14 police officers who were wounded by stones "aimed at the head," added Le Franc. According to him, "thousands" of young people aged between 15 and 25 have converged on the Nouméa metropolitan area, "in a staggered manner," and "the population is terrorized." The government has accused the rioters occupying the streets of being directed by the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front's (FLNKS) Coordination Cell for Field Action (CCAT). On Tuesday, the CCAT denied "ever having given the order to loot stores."
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