France has approved the launch of a Pacific mission to investigate the ongoing crisis in its overseas territory of New Caledonia, the French ambassador told local media on Friday.
Pacific mission in Nouméa
French ambassador to the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan told broadcaster RNZ Pacific that the high-level Pacific mission would lead a fact-finding effort into the crisis, which began on May 13.
Roger-Lacan wrote on website X on Thursday that she was heading to Fiji’s capital Suva for a meeting of Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers “with some news” from French President Emmanuel Macron for the Troika, a regional political consultative mechanism that includes Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown and Tonga Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni.
Roger-Lacan told RNZ that France “welcomes” the Troika’s mission to New Caledonia, as requested in a letter to Macron last month by Pacific leaders.
Meanwhile, the curfew in the French overseas territory has been extended until August 19 as the situation remains volatile.
How the conflict evolved
Demonstrations were held in the New Caledonian capital of Nouméa on 13 May against a French bill to expand the electorate in local elections. It allows people who have lived in New Caledonia for more than ten years to vote in elections. Now only citizens and their children on the electoral rolls at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, which expanded the overseas territory’s autonomy, are eligible to vote.
Security forces arrested 140 people on 15 May. Four people were reported dead and hundreds injured, including about 100 police and gendarmes. French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc reported “exchanges of fire between rioters and civil defence forces.” There was also an attempt to storm a gendarmerie station.
French President Emmanuel Macron called a meeting of the Security Council on 16 May to discuss the worsening situation. Later, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced the deployment of troops to New Caledonia. He also said the French military is deployed to secure the island’s ports and airport.
Macron announced on June 12 that he was suspending the implementation of a controversial plan to reform the electoral system in New Caledonia.
