On Tuesday night, violent protests and looting in New Caledonia resulted in one person being shot dead and two others wounded, according to the high commissioner of the French Pacific territory, Louis Le Franc. The deceased was not a member of the police or gendarmes. The unrest began on Monday in response to a proposed constitutional reform in the French national assembly that aims to expand the electorate in New Caledonia’s provincial elections. Following the riots, local authorities imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The conflict ties back to the Noumea Accord of 1998, which allowed New Caledonia to hold three referendums on its political status. Referendums in 2018, 2020, and 2021 all rejected independence. However, the pro-independence Indigenous Kanaks boycotted the last referendum due to the COVID-19 pandemic, disputing its results. The current violence was triggered by a proposed voting reform to reduce the residency requirement for New Caledonian citizenship to 10 years.
Source – CGTN
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