New Caledonia unrest: Residents fear food shortages

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Inside the Medepol Hospital in Noumea there is an eerie quiet.

00:05 Patients with chronic conditions are not coming in or are no longer being treated.

00:10 Staff who have not been relieved for days say the supplies are thin

00:14 and that the roadblocks outside have inhibited access, imperiling patients.

00:19 "Leave it to the ambulance service, leave it to the hospital staff who have their badges.

00:23 It's not to go shopping, it's to come to work at the Medepol.

00:27 It's to come and help the population."

00:29 Supply problems are concerning residents throughout New Caledonia.

00:33 Seen here, they await long queues and empty supermarket shelves.

00:37 Around 100 containers are waiting at the port.

00:40 The problem is transporting them safely.

00:43 "There is no shortage of stock.

00:46 There are storage areas for food and pharmaceutical products.

00:49 For me, the most urgent priority is to establish a functioning food system

00:54 that meets the daily needs of the population as well as their health needs."

00:59 On Thursday, France deployed more than a thousand extra security forces to the archipelago

01:08 after declaring it a state of emergency.

01:11 Authorities say the pro-independence movement known as the CCAT

01:15 is responsible for most of the violence in recent days.

01:18 In return, they blame the state.

01:22 "In the face of the state's stubborn determination to impose constitutional change,

01:27 we denounce the state's irresponsibility and hold it responsible for the loss of human life,

01:33 atrocities and devastation of the country's economic fabric."

01:38 Critics of the proposed new voting laws argue that it will further marginalise the Indigenous Kanak people.

01:44 Their leaders are calling for calm, saying they regret the loss of life,

01:49 life but they stand against the laws.

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