New Caledonia says situation ‘calmer’ after state of emergency imposed
Al Jazeera
Some 1,000 security personnel have arrived from France to address the worst unrest in the territory since the 1980s.
Authorities in New Caledonia have described the situation in the French Pacific territory as “calmer” after Paris declared a state of emergency in response to violence that erupted on Monday night over plans to change provincial voting rules.
The officer of the high commissioner of New Caledonia, which represents the French state, said in a statement on Friday that unrest in the provincial capital Noumea had subsided, as hundreds of security reinforcements arrived from Paris.
“For the first time since Monday, the situation is calmer and more peaceful in greater Noumea,” the commission said in a statement.
However, there had been fires at a school and two businesses overnight, it added.
Anger has been simmering for weeks over French plans to expand the vote in New Caledonia to outsiders who have lived on the island for 10 years or more, in a relaxation of voting restrictions agreed upon after an earlier period of political unrest in the 1980s.
