The situation in New Caledonia is escalating: France has begun evacuating tourists after ongoing unrest has already claimed the lives of seven people.
France has begun evacuating French tourists due to ongoing serious unrest in the overseas territory of New Caledonia.
As the television station BFMTV reported, the first travelers were flown out to Australia and New Zealand on board military aircraft. From there, they will continue on to France with commercial flights.
The unrest in the French overseas territory in the South Pacific has been going on for over a week. Seven people have already been killed. France has declared a state of emergency and sent additional security forces to the archipelago. The riots were triggered by a constitutional amendment planned by Paris that would grant thousands of residents of French origin the right to vote.
However, supporters of independence in New Caledonia, which has a population of 270,000, fear that this would reduce the influence of the original population. The indigenous Kanak ethnic group has long hoped for its own state. During his visit to New Caledonia on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that he wanted to hold off on the reform for the time being until the situation had calmed down and political talks could be resumed.
Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport has been closed since May 14 and all commercial flights have been cancelled since then. Australia and New Zealand had already begun flying out their nationals using military aircraft earlier this week.
Report on “bfmtv.com”
Source: Stern
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