POINTE-A-PITRE, France: School canceled, barricades on the street and pharmacies trashed: Days of rioting against measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 have brought normal routines on France’s Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to a standstill.
Paris authorities sent elite police and counterterrorism officers to Guadeloupe over the weekend in a bid to quell the violence, the latest COVID-19-related headache in France’s overseas territories for the government of President Emmanuel Macron.
Vaccination rates in France’s overseas territories, in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific, have generally been far lower than those on the mainland and there has been repeated unrest over anti-virus measures.
Protests in Guadeloupe, a territory of roughly 400,000 people, broke out after an announcement that COVID-19 jabs would be mandatory for all healthcare workers, with the demonstrations marred by clashes and looting.
Overnight Sunday, police arrested 38 people after curfew violators looted and torched shops and pharmacies, and two security forces were injured.
Macron acknowledged the gravity of the situation and urged local politicians not to mix the pressing issue of COVID-19 with colonial era grievances and also longstanding complaints the territory is economically neglected by Paris.
“We will not give in to lies, distorting of information and the exploitation by some people of this situation,” he told reporters on a visit to the northern French city of Amiens, calling the situation “very explosive.”
“We do not play with health and we will not let the health of the French be played with for the sake of political infighting,” he added.
The police reinforcements began dismantling protesters’ road barricades shortly after their arrival, according to Colonel Jean Pierre from the gendarmerie in Pointe-a-Pitre, the island’s main city.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, Overseas Territories Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Health Minister Olivier Veran will later on Monday hold an emergency meeting with Guadeloupe lawmakers to discuss the situation on the island.
The barricades had impeded traffic, forcing the closure of schools on Guadeloupe’s main island on Monday, the Education Ministry said.
The Guadeloupe prefecture said protesters fired on security forces and firefighters, adding that “organised gangs” were now also involved in the unrest.
Even though some barricades had been dismantled, “the situation remains uncertain concerning road traffic and the possibility of staff and students moving smoothly and safely seems compromised at this stage,” the local authorities said in a statement.
Thirty people will appear in court on Monday in Pointe-a-Pitre for allegedly participating in the unrest, according to local prosecutor Patrick Desjardins.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal called the situation “intolerable and unacceptable” and vowed a tough response against a “small minority” who were intimidating health workers, preventing pharmacies from opening and even using barricades to block ambulances.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew from 6:00 p.m to 5:00 a.m is currently set to last until Tuesday.
Over the weekend, Guadeloupe’s main trade union the UGTG called for continued protests.
While the demonstrations were sparked by the vaccine mandate, they also express “the depth of suffering, inequality, poverty and exclusion felt by the people, notably youths and the elderly,” said UGTG Secretary General Maite Hubert M’Toumo.
Since summer, Guadeloupe’s vaccination drive has picked up, with 90 percent of healthcare workers vaccinated, as well as nearly half the general population. In mainland France, the vaccinate rate is close to 75 percent of the population.
In the neighboring French overseas territory of Martinique meanwhile, a general strike has been called for Monday, calling for an end to obligatory vaccination for health workers but also for wage rises and other social grievances.
‘Explosive’ COVID-19 riots paralyze France’s Guadeloupe
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‘Explosive’ COVID-19 riots paralyze France’s Guadeloupe
- Vaccine demonstrations also sparked colonial era grievances such as inequality, poverty and exclusion felt by youths and the elderly
Magnitude 7.5 quake in northern Japan injures 23 people and triggers a 2-foot tsunami
- A tsunami of up to 70 centimeters (2 feet, 4 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 50 centimeters struck other coastal communities in the region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said
TOKYO: A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, injuring 23 people and triggering a tsunami in Pacific coast communities, officials said. Authorities warned of possible aftershocks and an increased risk of a megaquake.
The Japanese government was still assessing damages from the tsunami and late-evening quake, which struck at about 11:15 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main Honshu island.
“I’ve never experienced such a big shaking,” convenience store owner Nobuo Yamada told the public broadcaster NHK in the Aomori prefecture town of Hachinohe, adding that “luckily” power lines were still operating in his area.
A tsunami of up to 70 centimeters (2 feet, 4 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 50 centimeters struck other coastal communities in the region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 23 people were injured, including one seriously. Most of them were hit by falling objects, NHK reported, adding that several people were injured in a hotel in Hachinohe and a man in Tohoku was slightly hurt when his car fell into a hole.
The meteorological agency reported the quake’s magnitude as 7.5, down from its earlier estimate of 7.6. It issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to 3 meters (10 feet) in some areas and later downgraded to an advisory.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara urged residents to go to higher ground or seek shelter until adviseries were lifted. He said about 800 homes were without electricity, and that the Shinkansen bullet trains and some local lines were suspended in parts of the region.
Nuclear power plants in the region were conducting safety checks, Kihara said. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said about 450 liters (118 gallons) of water spilled from a spent fuel cooling area at the Rokkasho fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori, but that its water level remained within the normal range and there was no safety concern.
About 480 residents were taking shelter at the Hachinohe Air Base, and 18 defense helicopters were mobilized for a damage assessment, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.
About 200 passengers were stranded for the night at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, NHK reported.
The meteorological agency issued a caution about possible aftershocks in the coming days. It said there is a slight increase in risk of a magnitude 8-level quake and possible tsunami occurring along Japan’s northeastern coast from Chiba, just east of Tokyo, to Hokkaido. The agency urged residents in 182 municipalities in the area to monitor their emergency preparedness in the coming week.
Satoshi Kato, a vice principal of a public high school in Hachinohe, told NHK that he was at home when the quake struck, and that glasses and bowls fell and smashed into shards on the floor.
Kato said he drove to the school because it was designated an evacuation center, and on the way he encountered traffic jams and car accidents as panicked people tried to flee. Nobody had yet come to the school to take shelter, he said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in brief comments to reporters that the government set up an emergency task force to urgently assess the extent of damage. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” she said.
Later, she urged residents in the region to pay attention to the latest information from local municipalities. “Please be prepared so you can immediately evacuate as soon as you feel a tremor.”
The quake struck about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Hachinohe, and about 50 kilometers (30 miles) below the sea surface, the meteorological agency said.
It was just north of the Japanese coast that suffered the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed nearly 20,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
“You need to prepare, assuming that a disaster like that could happen again,” the meteorological agency’s earthquake and volcano division official Satoshi Harada said.
At 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning, authorities lifted all tsunami adviseries for the Pacific coastline in northern Japan, NHK said.
The US Geological Survey reported another earthquake, with a magnitude 5.1, early on Tuesday, about 122 kilometers (76 miles) south of Honcho, at a depth of 35 kilometers. No other details were immediately available.
