Mass protests broke out in New Caledonia this week after the French parliament voted to allow French residents who have lived in the Pacific Islands territory for 10 years or more to vote in provincial elections.
The French government has argued that these reforms defend democracy in the archipelago. But local people – particularly the indigenous Kanak community, which makes up 40 percent of the islands' population – fear this will undermine their efforts to gain independence from France.
France deployed troops to New Caledonia's ports and international airport and banned TikTok when the government imposed a state of emergency on May 16.
Anger among the indigenous Kanak people has been simmering for weeks over plans to amend the French constitution, watering down a 1998 agreement that limited voting rights.
Hundreds of heavily armed French sailors and police patrolled the capital, Noumea, on Saturday, where the streets were filled with rubble after several nights of looting, arson and armed clashes in which six people died.
French officials have accused an independence group known as CCAT of being behind the protests. According to authorities, ten activists accused of organizing the violence have been placed under house arrest.
New Caledonia has been a French territory since its colonization in the late 19th century. Centuries later, politics remains dominated by debate over whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent, with opinions divided roughly along ethnic lines.
