New Caledonia: Gendarme killed by friendly fire during third night of unrest (2024)

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 five dead and hundreds wounded.

Pro-independence, largely Indigenous protests against a French plan to impose new voting rules on its Pacific archipelago have spiraled into the deadliest violence since the 1980s. A gendarme was killed on Thursday, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told Agence France-Presse (AFP), bringing to two the number of police officers who have died. According to Interior Ministry information obtained by Le Monde, he was killed by friendly fire.

French authorities reported a third night of "clashes," though 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. Armored vehicles roved the city's palm-lined boulevards, usually thronged with tourists. White residents in some neighborhoods 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.

President Emmanuel Macron has said French lawmakers will vote to adopt the constitutional change by the end of June unless New Caledonia's opposing sides can strike a new deal. But a videoconference planned for Thursday was dropped as "the different players didn't want to speak to one another for now," his office said.

On Thursday, 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."

TikTok ban

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 mobilized and a further 500 will reinforce them, a French government spokeswoman said.