Two dead, hundreds injured as riots sweep New Caledonia

Masked residents watch an activist at the entrance to Tuband, in the Motor Pool district of Noumea on May 15, 2024, amid protests linked to a debate on a constitutional bill aimed at enlarging the electorate for upcoming elections of the overseas French territory of New Caledonia.

Shops were looted and public buildings torched during last night’s violence, the authorities there said. The office of the High Commissioner, France’s top representative in New Caledonia, later Wednesday reported a second death in the riots, without giving any details of the circumstances. In Noumea and the commune of Paita there were reports of several exchanges of fire between civil defence groups and rioters.

A nighttime curfew was extended, along with bans on gatherings, the carrying of weapons and the sale of alcohol.As rioters took to the streets, France’s lower house of parliament 17,000 kilometres away voted in favour of a constitutional change bitterly opposed by indigenous Kanaks.The reform — which must still be approved by a joint sitting of both houses of the French parliament — would give a vote to people who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years.

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