France has dispatched the CRS 8 (Eighth Company of Republican Security), a specialized police unit, to suppress protests in its overseas department of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, according to a police source cited by the television channel BFMTV.
Report informs that the special forces were expected to arrive on the island on Saturday evening. Authorities in Martinique have imposed a curfew in several areas of the capital city, Fort-de-France, and the commune of Lamentin amid widespread demonstrations against rising prices.
According to the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the average price level in several of France's overseas territories is currently higher than in the European part of the country. In Martinique, prices are 14% higher, with food costs a staggering 40% more expensive.
Protests are also taking place on the neighboring island of Guadeloupe, where a strike by workers of the French energy company EDF has led to power outages for residents throughout the week.
The Front for the Liberation of French Colonies has condemned the violence perpetrated by French authorities in the colonized territories. In a statement, the organization noted that "the rights of the people of Martinique to economic and social justice are being brutally suppressed."
"These state repressions are part of France's colonial policy. Our struggle is a fight for justice, freedom, liberation, and the dignity of our people. We will remain true to our cause until colonialism is definitively eradicated and our peoples finally achieve freedom, peace, and sovereignty," reads the statement, which was endorsed by 17 political movements from territories under French colonial rule.