New Caledonia: A deeply divided territory

Two years after the riots that shook New Caledonia in 2024, FRANCE 24 returns to a French overseas territory still grappling with the consequences of one of the darkest chapters in its recent history. Travelling from the Kanak independence stronghold of Saint-Louis to Mont-Dore, Nouméa and Bourail, our reporters meet the people living with the lasting scars of the violence. In Saint-Louis, just south of Nouméa, a wedding is being prepared. The atmosphere is joyful, yet memories of the unrest linger in people's minds. It was here, during the 2024 riots, that two young men were killed by officers from France's elite GIGN tactical unit. The violence was sparked by a proposed expansion of New Caledonia's electoral roll, a reform that reignited decades-old tensions over the territory's political future. For many Kanaks, the proposal threatened to dilute the Indigenous vote. For loyalists, it was a long-overdue democratic reform. Two years later, those competing visions continue to shape everyday life. In Saint-Louis, Dimitri Qenegei, who was imprisoned before later being exonerated, retraces the final moments of friends who died pursuing what they believed was the cause of an independen...