France accuses Azerbaijan of fomenting deadly riots in overseas territory New Caledonia –

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly accused France of “neo-colonialism” and has actively supported independence movements and other countries’ claims over French territories across the world, including the island of Mayotte and New Caledonia.

Azerbaijan has even founded the Baku Initiative Group, bringing together 14 political movements across the former French Empire in the name of decolonization. The group issued a statement Thursday in which they accused Paris of “infringing upon the Kanak people’s right to self-determination by expanding the electorate to keep them a minority in their own homeland.”

However, according to Philippe Gomes, former president of the government of New Caledonia, Azerbaijan is actively funding the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front.

“Azerbaijan created the Baku group that funds separatists in all overseas French regions,” said Gomes, who has tried to quell calls for the islands to break from Paris. “Recent trips to Paris by independence activists were funded by Baku. It is clear and obvious that Azerbaijan is contributing in support the request for independence, which can be called foreign interference,” Gomes said.

Roch Wamytan, a Kanak politician serving as president of the Congress of New Caledonia has dismissed claims that Baku is a malign influence in the region. “Why demonize this country?” he asked in April as part of a row over local politicians recieving paid travel from authoritarian Azerbaijan. “France supports repressive and authoritarian regimes like Togo, Chad, Djibouti, by training their security forces, by advising their military hierarchy and through the sale of arms,” he said.

As part of the state of emergency, France has banned TikTok in New Caledonia in an apparent effort to disrupt the organization of protests that have left hundreds injured. The decision also allows authorities to order people deemed a threat to public order to be held under house arrest, as well as carry out searches, seize weapons and suspend the right to free assembly.

“No violence will be tolerated,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said, insisting the draconian measures will “allow us to roll out huge efforts to restore order.”

Home to more than a quarter of a million people, New Caledonia was settled around 3,000 years ago by Pacific Islanders, and named by British explorer James Cook in 1774. It was later conquered by France in 1853. In recent years, there have been charges that the indigenous Kanak people have faced systemic discrimination and chronic underdevelopment.