Deadly violence erupted last week over a proposed change to France’s constitution that would grant voting rights to a number of people who are non-indigenous to the former French Pacific colony, located about 10,000 miles from Paris. The proposal has awakened tensions between the largely pro-independence Kanak population and the European population.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has called for calm in the archipelago, which is currently under a state of emergency with a nighttime curfew.
A temporary ban on TikTok has also been put in place, with hundreds of security forces sent from the French mainland.
Protesters have caused an estimated £172 million worth of damage after looting shops and setting vehicles and buildings on fire.
Pro-independence protesters criticise the proposed change as undermining the indigenous Kanak population. Kanaks make up around 41 per cent of the territory’s population of 270,000 people, while about a quarter identify as European.
Under current law, more than 40,000 French citizens living in the territory are not eligible to vote in local elections.
The current voting rules stem from a 1998 agreement, known as the Nouméa Accord, in which the French government agreed to restrict local voting rights to people who met certain conditions, which largely favours the Kanak population. Those currently eligible to vote must have been born before 1989, or have at least one parent born in New Caledonia.
The bill, which Mr Macron is set to sign into law in June, would let all citizens who have lived in New Caledonia for at least ten years vote in local elections.