Flights Available to Evacuate Citizens Trapped in Troubled New Caledonia

Both the Australian and New Zealand Defence Force are on their way to New Caledonia to rescue people trapped there by days of bloody violence.

People queue to enter a supermarket to purchase groceries and food in the Magenta district of Noumea, France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on May 18, 2024. Anger over France's plan to impose new voting rules has spiralled into the deadliest violence in four decades in the archipelago of 270,000 people, which lies between Australia and Fiji -- 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from Paris. (Photo by Theo Rouby / AFP) Photo by THEO ROUBY/AFP via Getty Images

The foreign affairs ministers of Australia and New Zealand have announced flights will be leaving Nouméa to evacuate citizens trapped in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia after days of rioting and violence.

So far, the unrest, instigated by a socialist-led independence movement, has resulted in the deaths of six people, and major destruction to buildings.