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TERRIFIED British tourists are being evacuated from tropical holiday hotspot New Caledonia as the territory is rocked by a wave of deadly violence.
Nine days of riots have left six people dead and injured hundreds more, with cars, shops, and buildings set on fire and destroyed.
A Kanak flag waves next to a burning vehicle at a roadblock in New CaledoniaGetty
A Gendarmerie officer looks on from an armoured vehicle in Noumea, New CaledoniaGetty
AFP
AFP
AP
The UK has joined Australia and New Zealand in efforts to rescue their citizens from Haiti-style bloodshed in the French territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron is flying to the Pacific territory today – on the heels of French cops who arrived on the islands last week – as rebels continue torching cars and looting shops.
Pictures showed burned-out vehicles stacked on top of each other to form roadblocks that were said to be restricting tourists’ and locals’ access to medicine and food.
The unrest is the deadliest seen in the French Pacific territory for four decades.
Six people have died in the protests, which began nine days ago after Paris approved changes that would give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous residents.
Local leaders among the territory’s indigenous Kanak people are said to be fearful the constitutional reform will dilute the Kanak vote.
Macron will meet elected officials and local representatives tomorrow for a day of talks related to politics and the reconstruction of the islands, aides said.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said Macron “will discuss with all the forces in New Caledonia”, adding that the objective of talks is to “prepare and anticipate reconstruction”.
He said: “The president is also going there to re-establish dialogue.”
One family who have called New Caledonia home for nearly a year, with the children enrolled in schools, is preparing to flee the turmoil by packing their boat with supplies and sailing 770nm to Australia.
Dad-of-three Xavier Decramer, a French national, told The Guardian: “It’s clearly with a heavy heart that we’re going to be leaving this place.
“Bearing in mind my wife was born here, we wanted to settle here.
“It’s difficult. We’re really torn between the need to put our family in safety … and the feeling that we are leaving people behind here – people who cannot leave.”
Nouméa’s international airport is closed for commercial flights, but some governments – including Australia and New Zealand’s – have launched repatriation flights to get their nationals off the islands.
Schools have also been closed and businesses burned down, with supplies for people and hospitals now beginning to run low.
Some 3,200 tourists are understood to be stuck in the territory – along with some 270,000 residents.
Fiery clashes are making it increasingly difficult for all to shop for supplies and to seek medical help.
The New Caledonia government explained: “The problem is not so much a lack of staff, medical and food supplies but more importantly one of access.”
British nationals are being supported by the UK government as it works with France, Australia and New Zealand on a coordinated response, The Sun understands.
A small number of Brits yesterday joined flights organised by New Zealand and Australia to leave the territory.
The Brits who remain in New Caledonia have been advised by the UK government to register their presence and follow the Foreign Office’s travel advice for further updates.
It comes after Paris last week declared a state of emergency on the islands and sent 1,000 troops to support New Caledonia’s security forces which seemed to have lost control in Nouméa.
Why are there riots in New Caledonia?
Deadly riots in the French colony of New Caledonia have been sparked after lawmakers in Paris approved a constitutional amendment to allow recent arrivals to the territory to vote in elections.
Local leaders fear the changes will dilute the vote of the indigenous Kanak people, who make up 40 per cent of the paradise island’s population.
In 1998 it was agreed that voting would be restricted to the indigenous Kanaks and migrants living there before ’98 but riots have exploded after Paris decided to open up elections to those who have lived there for at least ten years.
The amendment is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long battle over France’s control of the territory since 1942 after Macron announced plans to increase French influence in the Pacific.
New Caledonia is the world’s third biggest nickel producer and is situated in a spot where the US and China are currently grappling for power.
After the nickel boom attracted many outsiders to the island tensions have risen with conflicts between Paris and Kanak independence movements.
Two Royal Australian Air Force planes flew 108 Australians and other tourists from New Caledonia to Brisbane on Tuesday night, as the New Zealand military flew 48 people to Auckland.
France said it expects to evacuate about 500 people on military aircraft from today.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the unfolding situation as “deeply concerning”.
Dominique Fochi, secretary-general of the leading independence movement in the territory, urged calm on the islands but said the French government must suspend the constitutional reform.
He told Reuters: “We need strong actions to calm the situation, the government needs to stop putting oil on the fire.”
The presidents of four other French overseas territories called for the withdrawal of the reform, writing in an open letter: “Only a political response can halt the rising violence and prevent civil war.”
Viro Xulue, a member of a community group currently helping Kanak people, said the current unrest was akin to the civil war in the 1980s.
He said: “We are really scared about the police, the French soldiers, and we are scared about the anti-Kanak militia terrorist group.
“The French government doesn’t know how to control people here.
“They send more than 2,000 military to control, but it’s a fail.”
Three of the six people killed during the protests were young Kanaks shot by armed civilians.
The deadly conflict now unfolding is between Kanak activists, armed self-defence groups, and civilian militias, according to France’s High Commission.
AFP
Rex
AFP
AFP
Rex
AFP
Passengers carry their luggage as civil guards, cops and firefighters board a plane of the French Air ForceReuters
Passengers board a plane of the French Air Force at Istres military airbaseReuters
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