BLACK SMOKE
Days of clashes, looting and arson have left seven people dead, two of them police officers and hundreds injured.
More than 500 businesses have been destroyed, labour official Thierry Santa said, while an overnight curfew remains in force across the whole of New Caledonia.
In Dumbea, north of Noumea, thick black smoke was rising from a local gym Friday, while elsewhere separatist blockades were still slowing traffic.
Military ships delivered food and drugs to New Caledonia’s north province on Thursday and Friday as road transport has been severely disrupted, imposing shortages.
A total of 666 people have been arrested in connection with the unrest, according to High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, the territory’s top government official.
He added that almost 1,950 tourists who were trapped in the archipelago have so far been able to leave.
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.
