On Wednesday, police deployed water cannons against protesters in Northern Ireland, who ignited small fires and lobbed bricks, rocks, and bottles during a second night of unrest following a violent stabbing on a Belfast street.
Masked demonstrators dismantled bricks from walls near homes and shattered sidewalks with sledgehammers to hurl at riot police. In one area, the disorderly group repurposed parts of a dismantled picket fence for cover on the roadway.
The confrontation with law enforcement erupted hours after a 30-year-old Sudanese man made a court appearance in Belfast, facing charges of attempted murder in a stabbing incident that left a man severely injured, sparking anti-immigrant violence.
Hadi Alodid, 30, was remanded in custody after a video appearance at Belfast Magistrates’ Court. A detective testified that he had caused blindness in Stephen Ogilvie’s left eye during the assault.
Alodid also faced charges of possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while being treated for a hand injury sustained after the attack.
When police arrived at the crime scene, they found Alodid on the man, armed with a kitchen knife, the detective said. Alodid later told hospital staff: “I’ve killed someone, I don’t know if they are dead,” and said, “I will kill you.”
He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea.
Police were prepared for more violence after masked men on Tuesday set fire to several homes they believed to house immigrants, burned trash bins, torched a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects.
Firefighters rescued several people from burning houses and more than two dozen people were left homeless.
Anselme Shima, a Belfast resident originally from Congo, said he saw smoke from burning vehicles near his home.
“I’ve lived on my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was a horrific one,” he said. “We don’t know what to do. I’m scared. Seeing this, I’m wondering if I’m next.”
Families, one with a baby, were rescued and taken to police stations for safety, Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said.
“These weren’t just families from ethnic minority communities, these were families from across communities that were caught up in this vile behavior last night,” Boutcher told the BBC. “There is absolutely no excuse for it.”
Boutcher said 200 more officers would be on the streets Wednesday and the PSNI was calling in support from other forces. Bus and train operators in Belfast said they would stop services early because of expected protests.
Ogilvie’s family appealed for an end to the violence and said migrants “make a deeply valuable contribution to our country.”
“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” the family said in a statement.
Politicians from both parts of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the violence. First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said it was “thuggery.”
“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said that “taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.”
The attack was caught on video
Monday’s attack, caught in video footage that quickly spread on social media, was seized on by anti-immigration activists. Ogilvie, a man in his 40s, was hospitalized with deep cuts to his head, face and back.
Police said Alodid entered Northern Ireland from the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum and was given a five-year permit to remain.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said there is no information to suggest the attack was terrorism-related.
Protests were encouraged online by far-right activists, and the street violence erupted despite politicians’ calls for calm.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the stabbing attack as “sickening,” but said violence against people based on their background would not be tolerated.
“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable,” Starmer said on X. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.”
Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long said social media agitators who “yesterday would have struggled to find Belfast on a map” were “weaponizing” the fears of local people.
“If you’re driving people from their homes based on nothing but the color of their skin, you can’t dress that up any other way, it’s racism, and those bad faith actors need to take a step back,” she told the BBC.
Some raise questions about the Irish border
Some politicians said the stabbing should spark a review of the open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland.
The border is a highly sensitive issue. Allowing the free flow of people is a major pillar of the peace process that largely ended decades of violence known as “The Troubles.”
The conflict involving Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and UK security forces left almost 3,600 people dead before a 1998 peace accord.
Much of Tuesday’s violence took place in working-class areas where former paramilitary groups still hold considerable sway over the streets.
Last week a separate case of a university student who was stabbed to death in Southampton, England, in December was seized on by activists and US Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigration for the violence, an idea rejected by Starmer and other British politicians.
Henry Nowak, who was white, was killed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh who falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded Nowak as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced last week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term. A protest over Nowak’s death turned violent, with some attacking police with chairs and rocks. Several people were charged with violent disorder.