(CNN) — French President Emmanuel Macron is on his way to New Caledonia, a government official said, after a week of deadly unrest in the Pacific archipelago.
Macron would leave Paris this Tuesday night and “establish a mission” on French territory, government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot said at a press conference, without giving further details.
He will be accompanied by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Foreign Minister Marie Guévenoux, Darmanin told the National Assembly.
New Caledonia has been rocked by unrest sparked by the national government’s electoral changes. The riots have killed at least six people and left a trail of burned cars and looted shops, with road barricades restricting access to medicine and food.
The violence is the latest flare-up in political tensions that have been simmering for years, pitting the island’s largely pro-independence indigenous Kanak communities, who have long irritated the government in Paris, against French residents. who oppose breaking ties with their homeland.
Macron’s visit comes as Australia and New Zealand deploy government planes to evacuate their citizens from New Caledonia and as hundreds more French security personnel have been deployed to help with the unrest.
The French High Commission in New Caledonia said Tuesday that the airport will remain closed to commercial flights until May 25.
Thevenot said Tuesday that 1,000 more members of the French security forces have arrived in New Caledonia to support the 1,700 troops already on the island. Darmanin also told the French legislature that the number of police and gendarmes in New Caledonia would soon reach 3,000.
Also speaking before France’s National Assembly, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said Tuesday that “the situation is starting to improve.”
The protests began on May 13, mostly young people, in response to the introduction of a vote in the French parliament to propose changes to New Caledonia’s constitution that would give greater voting rights to French residents living on the islands. On Tuesday, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of the change.
