French President Emmanuel Macron has convened a defence and national security council meeting to discuss riots that resulted in the death of at least two persons in New Caledonia.
The office of the high commissioner, France’s top representative in New Caledonia, confirmed the two killings but gave no details as rioting continued and schools remained closed after France’s adoption of controversial reforms to the Pacific territory’s voting rules.
Tension has been high for weeks over plans in Paris to change the constitution to allow more people to vote in New Caledonia’s provincial elections.
While France said the rules must be changed for democracy sake, critics argued that the move which would allow more European arrivals to vote would marginalise the Indigenous Kanak people, who make up about 40 percent of the population.
