Australia: The Australian and New Zealand governments announced that they were sending planes to evacuate their citizens from violence-hit New Caledonia.
The French government has permitted Australia to send two planes to evacuate tourists and citizens from New Caledonia, amid the violent unrest that has engulfed the French Pacific archipelago, where native people have long sought independence from France, according to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
“We continue to work on further flights,” Wong wrote on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
There are 300 Australians in New Caledonia, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Additionally, New Zealand declared that it will be sending a plane on Tuesday to remove 50 of its citizens from Noumea, the capital of the Pacific island, as the first of several planned flights intended to return its citizens home.
Following contentious election changes agreed in Paris last week, violence broke out in New Caledonia, resulting in at least six fatalities and hundreds more injuries. As of Tuesday, 270 rioters had been taken into custody, and a curfew was in place from 6 am to 6 am.
In an attempt to calm the disturbance and regain control, France has dispatched over a thousand security officers, with hundreds more expected to arrive on Tuesday.
Tensions between native Kanaks who want independence and the descendants of colonists who wish to stay in France have existed for decades.
As the French legislature in Paris discussed changing the French constitution to modify the voter lists in New Caledonia, violence broke out on May 13. One bill that would allow people who have lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections was adopted by the National Assembly in Paris.
The measure’s opponents worry that it will further marginalize Kanaks, who were previously subjected to rampant discrimination and tight segregation regulations, and that it will favour pro-France politicians in New Caledonia.
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