French minister says New Caledonia capital ‘under control’

French security forces have regained control throughout New Caledonia’s capital Noumea, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday, two weeks after deadly riots broke out in the Pacific territory.

Around 400 police had cleared 26 barricades and arrested 12 people in the Riviere-Salee district in the city’s north, Darmanin wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

It was “the last neighbourhood of Noumea that was not under control”, he added.

The violence erupted over a planned voting reform that indigenous Kanaks fear will marginalise them politically.

A police source told AFP that Riviere Salee had been criss-crossed with “many barricades manned by dangerous individuals, and several snipers were spotted”.

Other districts of greater Noumea remain blockaded, said Sonia Backes, a pro-France politician who heads New Caledonia’s southern province.

ALSO READ: French reinforcements reach ‘calmer’ New Caledonia after riots

She urged government forces to clear the remaining neighbourhoods as soon as possible.

An AFP journalist saw another blockade being dismantled in La Tamoa, on the main road to Noumea’s international airport of La Tontouta.

The hub is still closed to commercial flights, although the access road was one of the first targets for police clearance actions.

Local carrier Aircalin said on Friday that La Tontouta airport will not reopen until at least 9:00 am on Monday (2200 GMT on June 2).

The airport in Noumea was shut on May 14, a day after protests erupted.

Days of clashes, looting and arson have left seven people dead and hundreds injured.

ALSO READ: France deploys additional forces to quell New Caledonia unrest

New Caledonia has been ruled from Paris since the nineteenth century but many Indigenous Kanaks want fuller autonomy or independence.

France had been planning to give voting rights to thousands of non-Indigenous long-term residents, something Kanaks said would dilute the influence of their votes.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged during a lightning trip to the territory last week that the voting reforms would “not be forced through”.

Since then, tensions have eased significantly and a state of emergency was lifted on Tuesday.

New Caledonia is one of several territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific that are still part of France in the post-colonial era, giving Paris a global footprint unmatched by any other European power.

– By: © Agence France-Presse