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Australians stranded in New Caledonia are rationing food as they wait to leave following riots that have killed four people.
Sydney traveller Joanne Elias and her family have been holed up in a Noumea resort since the violence broke out earlier this week.
“The kids are definitely hungry because we don’t really have much option of what we can feed them,” she told Reuters.
“You can tell they are running out of food,” she said, referring to the resort where they are staying.
After three nights of upheaval, hundreds of French police reinforcements began arriving in the French-ruled territory on Friday in an effort to regain control of the capital.
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The riots, sparked by anger among Indigenous Kanak people over contested electoral reform, have resulted in burnt businesses, torched cars, looted shops and road barricades, cutting off access to medicine and food, authorities say.
At least four people, including a police official, have been killed in the unrest.
Ms Elias, who arrived in the country on May 10 with her husband and four children, said she had been told to fill a bathtub in case water ran out as food stocks dwindled.
“We don’t know how long we’re going to be here for,” she said, adding that her family was among about 30 Australians stuck at the resort.
On Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a post on social media platform X that the government was “working with authorities in France and New Caledonia, and like-minded partners including New Zealand, to assess options for Australians to safely depart”.
She added that Noumea’s La Tontouta International Airport remained closed and urged Australians “to exercise a high degree of caution in New Caledonia”.
The New Caledonia government said on Friday the island had stocks of food for two months and the problem was distribution.
Specialists who can clear mines will start removing booby-trapped road barricades that have cut off supplies of food and medicine to the public, French officials have said.
Reuters