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Macron heads to riot-hit New Caledonia as Australia, NZ leave travelers

French President Emmanuel Macron will take a trip to the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Tuesday, a federal government spokesperson said, just over a week after riots erupted in the French overseas territory, killing 6.

Australia and New Zealand were evacuating travelers from the island as the violence left a path of damage with looted stores, torched cars and trucks and roadway barricades restricting access to medication and food.

Some 108 Australians and other travelers landed in Brisbane on two federal government flights, Australian Foreign Minister Cent Wong said on X. A defense force plane landed in Auckland with some 50 people on board, the New Zealand Herald reported.

More flights were expected in coming days to evacuate some 500 French and foreign tourists in overall, France's High Commission in New Caledonia stated.

The airport, shut given that the start of the riots, remained closed for industrial flights.

The protests were sparked by anger amongst indigenous Kanak individuals over constitutional reform approved in Paris that would change who is allowed to take part in elections. Local leaders fear the change will water down the Kanak vote.

Macron will fulfill elected authorities and regional representatives on Thursday for a day of talks concentrated on politics and on the restoration of the island, assistants said.

Macron will talk about with all the forces in New Caledonia, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said. The objective is to ... prepare and prepare for restoration.

The president is likewise going there to re-establish discussion, Attal stated.

DIALOGUE

Preliminary response showed renewing discussion will not be an simple job, all the more so as pro-independence leaders blame the riots on Macron pushing through the electoral reform in spite of regional opposition.

Here comes the fireman after he set the fire! Jimmy Naouna, from the Front de Freedom Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of New Caledonia, composed on X about news of Macron's visit.

France annexed New Caledonia in 1853 and provided the colony the status of overseas area in 1946. New Caledonia is the world's No. 3 nickel miner however the sector remains in crisis and one in 5 residents live under the hardship threshold.

The island lies some 20,000 km (12,430 miles) far from mainland France, and some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Australia.

The opposition in Paris, former French prime ministers, and leaders of other Pacific islands have actually also said Macron ought to not proceed with the electoral reform, which parliament in Paris embraced last Tuesday.

Vanuatu Foreign Minister Matai Seremaiah prompted France to do the best thing, to fix all exceptional decolonisation issues and seriously engage with Kanak leaders.

EVACUATIONS. Around 3,200 people were waiting to leave or get in New Caledonia. after industrial flights were canceled recently due to the. discontent, the city government has actually stated.

Australian officials stated passengers were being prioritised. based on requirement. Those left behind were frustrated, stated. Australian Benen Huntley, honeymooning with wife Emily.

My spouse is quite upset, we just want to get home, he said. in a telephone interview.

We opened our hotel door this morning and you could just. see a massive billow of smoke coming off a building in the. range.

Queueing to buy bread, the Adelaide couple had seen lots. of gendarmes securing a petrol station.

Over 1,000 gendarmes and authorities from France were on patrol. and another 600 would be added, France's High Commission. said.

3 of the 6 individuals eliminated in the discontent were young. Kanaks shot by armed civilians, and there have actually been. fights between Kanak protesters and armed self-defence. groups or civilian militias formed to secure themselves.

The French Government doesn't understand how to manage individuals. here, said Viro Xulue, part of a neighborhood group providing. social support to other Kanaks. He said it felt like a return. to the civil war of the 1980s and people were terrified.

The situation on the ground was enhancing however far more. required to be done, French federal government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot. said.

(source: Reuters)