PARIS (Reuters) – France is sending special police agents to restore order in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe hit by rioting and looting amid protests against COVID-19 protocols, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday.
“The first message is that the state will stand firm,” Darmanin told reporters after holding a crisis meeting on the Guadeloupe situation with Overseas Territory Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
Darmanin said France would send about 50 agents from the GIGN and RAID elite tactical forces of the gendarmerie and police to the island, where stores have been looted and shots fired at police and where 31 people were arrested overnight.
The extra forces will increase the number of police and gendarmes available for Guadeloupe’s prefect to 2,250, Darmanin said.
Lecornu said Prime Minister Jean Castex would meet on Monday with Guadeloupe officials to discuss the situation.
Guadeloupe’s prefect, Alexandre Rochatte, who represents the French government on the Caribbean archipelago, on Friday had imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m following five days of civil unrest during which barricades burned in the streets and firefighters and doctors walked out on strike.
Trade unions launched an indefinite strike on Monday to protest the compulsory vaccination of health workers against COVID-19 and health pass requirements.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Sophie Louet. Editing by Jane Merriman)
