Supporters for the independence of New Caledonia, in Noumea on October 4, 2020 (illustration).

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Mathurin Derel / AP / SIPA

Despite a round table on Friday, the tension does not fall in New Caledonia.

Violence again opposed the police and demonstrators on Monday, protesting against the takeover of a nickel processing plant from the Brazilian Vale by a Caledonian and international consortium.

The clashes occurred at several points in Noumea, many of which were blocked off to traffic, causing serious traffic jams.

A gendarme was injured, according to the High Commission of the Republic.

Burned cars

The violence started very early Monday morning in Noumea near the boat that transports Vale employees, to the factory site in the south of the archipelago.

The moorings were broken by protesters, around 100 according to local media, and the boat was later recovered by sea rescue services as it threatened to run aground on rocks.

Clashes then pitted law enforcement and protesters, tear gas canisters responding to stone throws, traffic obstructions and inflamed tires.

Cars and wooden pallets were also set on fire.

Members of the “southern factory: country factory” collective, the Indigenous Customary Negotiating Authority (ICAN) and the independence coalition FLNKS, the protesters oppose the possible sale in the coming days of the nickel factory in Vale, backed by the rich Goro deposit, by a Caledonian and international consortium led by Trafigura, a commodity trader based in Geneva.

This recovery is supported by the majority non-independence party.

On the factory site, whose access roads are blocked, tension is also very high.

Six gendarmes, two of whom were treated in hospital, were injured on Sunday in previous clashes.

The "fed up" of the loyalists

Dams have also been erected in the town of Mont-Dore, near the tribe of Saint Louis as well as in Bourail.

In this village north of the capital, loyalists are said to have installed a filtering dam in the south with blue, white and red flags to express their "fed up" while in the north a blockade was held by the demonstrators of the collective “Southern factory: country factory”.

To get out of the crisis, the various actors have appealed to Emmanuel Macron for arbitration.

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