The Noumea public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday 10 July that a man had been killed by return fire from the GIGN in southern New Caledonia. This death brings to ten the number of deaths since the start of unrest in the archipelago on 13 May.

The events took place in the Kanak tribe of Saint-Louis, located in the commune of Le Mont-Dore, to the east of the Nouméa conurbation, the public prosecutor’s office said, without giving details of the circumstances.

The victim was hit by long-range return fire from a GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) gendarme during an operation to unblock a road, according to a source close to the investigation quoted by Agence France-Presse.

As the gendarmes came under fire, the GIGN, deployed to support the operation, located the gunman and returned fire, according to this source. A second source close to the investigation said that the gendarmes were intervening to arrest the perpetrators of frequent gunfire in this tribe, and were attacked near a church during an operation to secure a main road.

The violence, fuelled by the vote on a constitutional bill to enlarge the Caledonian electorate for the provincial elections scheduled for the end of 2024, is the most serious since the 1980s. The bill, which pro-independence groups accused of marginalising the indigenous Kanak people, was suspended by Emmanuel Macron in June, three days after the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The unrest has so far claimed ten lives, including two gendarmes, and caused considerable material damage (fire, destruction, looting, etc.), estimated at €1.5 billion. They have also led to the arrest of several pro-independence activists.

Thirteen of them, including Christian Tein, the leader of the Cellule de coordination des actions de terrain (CCAT), have been charged with complicity in attempted murder and conspiracy to commit a crime since the start of the violence. Seven are currently on remand, and the transfer of five of them to mainland France a fortnight ago triggered a new wave of violence. Among them, Christian Tein has been imprisoned in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin).