French President Emmanuel Macron flies to New Caledonia amid ongoing unrest

By THOMAS ADAMSON
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is flying to New Caledonia in a bid to find a political solution to the riots that have rocked the French archipelago in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, some 16,000 kilometers from metropolitan France. The unrest has raised new questions about Macron’s handling of France’s colonial legacy. There have been decades of tensions between Indigenous Kanaks, who seek independence for the territory of 270,000 people, and descendants of colonists and others who settled on the island and who want to remain part of France. Recent updates report over 1,000 security reinforcements in place, 280 arrests, and 84 injured officers, with no new fatalities reported.