Sandalwood oil factory in flames on Maré Island on 9 March. Photo: RRB
There has been a series of violent incidents and confrontations over the weekend in New Caledonia's capital Nouméa, and its surroundings, causing clashes with law enforcement agencies and several injuries.
On Saturday night, in a bar and night-club in downtown Nouméa, an "Ladies Night" event dedicated to Women's Day degenerated into an all-out brawl, involving mostly young customers.
The event was scheduled to end at 2am, but bar owners decided to close at 1am, prompting violent reactions from the young patrons, who started to throw glasses at the DJ, then proceeded to ransack the bar.
The incident was recorded and later broadcast on social networks.
"We should have closed at 2am, but shortly after midnight, we felt the pressure was mounting and most of the people were already quite inebriated", the "1881" establishment owner told local media.
"So we decided to close earlier to avoid people getting more drunk. We stopped the music, that's when they started to throw glasses to the bar".
The brawl involved three to four hundred youths in a bar and night-club in downtown Nouméa on Saturday night. Photo: Supplied
Public brawl outside
Outside, in the parking lot, an estimated "three to four hundred" customers started to engage in a public brawl.
Law enforcement units were called and later described themselves as finding "a dangerous situation", confronted with "hostile" individuals, and having to resort to teargas and stun-balls.
The French High commission, during a press conference on Monday, reported seven people had been injured, including one gendarme and one police officer, in the face of people throwing "bottles, stones and even concrete blocks".
The situation came back under control at around 2:30 am, officials said.
The French High commission said at this stage, no one had been arrested, but an investigation was underway that could lead to the bar and night club being closed down.
"This is a serious incident (...) but we are not back to the insurrectional situation of last year", French High Commissioner's chief of staff Anaïs Aït Mansour told reporters.
She said a meeting had been called with all of Nouméa's bar and nightclub owners and managers.
After months of prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages, following the violent unrest that started in May 2024, the restrictions were finally lifted only a few weeks ago.
A re-introduction of the restrictive measure was now "under consideration", Aït Mansour said.
The incident has also prompted several reactions from the political sphere, as parties were preparing for the return of French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, in less than two weeks, to try and bring political talks to another level of negotiations on New Caledonia's political future.
Politicians warned not to amalgamate
The incidents, widely condemned by the pro-France groups, were also labelled as "inacceptable" by pro-independence Union Calédonienne (UC)-FLNKS party.
UC, in a media statement, said these "acts of vandalism and violence committed by inebriated youths" had "nothing to do with the political claims from 13 May 2024, or with the Kanak people's struggle".
The pro-independence party however warned against any attempt to amalgamate the actions and "turn these youths into scapegoats for all of our society's harms".
UC said these behaviours could be explained by "a profound ill-being" within "a certain part" of the young Kanak population who feel disenfranchised.
Violent clashes on the highway
The weekend was also marred by another violent confrontation with law enforcement services, on the Territorial road (RT1) between the capital Nouméa and the La Tontouta International airport, where motorists were targeted by people throwing stones at them.
The incidents took place early Sunday morning near the Saint-Laurent village, in an area usually referred to as "Col de La Pirogue", close to the small town of Païta.
Gendarmerie Commander, General Nicolas Matthéos, said those actions were from a group of up to thirty individuals under the influence of alcohol.
He said his services were now attempting to talk to traditional chiefs in the area so they could persuade those responsible for these "very aggressive" acts to surrender and be "brought to justice".
He said four gendarmes had been slightly injured after being hit by stones.
"We had to use stun grenades and during those operations we had to stop all traffic on the RT1".
Traffic had to be interrupted for almost one hour and a squadron of gendarmes remained in place to secure the area.
A judicial inquiry is also underway.
Sandalwood oil factory goes up in flames
Also at the weekend, on the island of Maré (Loyalty Islands Group), a sandalwood oil factory went up in flames late on Sunday evening.
Local firemen could not stop the destruction of the small factory' production and refinery unit.
Another investigation is now underway from Nouméa-based gendarmerie investigators to try and determine the cause of the fire and whether it is accidental or of criminal origin.
The locally-managed unit was created in 2010.
It was believed to be the world's third largest producer of high-quality sandalwood essential oil, with such prestigious international perfumery and cosmetics clients as Dior, Guerlain and Chanel.
