Police in Belfast used water cannon on Wednesday to break up dozens of far-right protesters on a second night of unrest, after a knife attack involving a Sudanese refugee set off days of disorder in the city. Officers said they were trying to maintain public order as rocks and bottles were thrown at them.
The escalation came after a violent Tuesday night that left families burned out of their homes and vehicles set alight, pushing the crisis from street protest into open destruction. UK minister Ruth Anderson said at least 27 people were made homeless, while one resident, Jamie Corry, said he watched his house go up in flames.
The unrest grew out of anti-immigration fury that spread online after videos of the stabbing circulated during the day and prompted calls for violent protest. On Wednesday, the suspect, Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, appeared in court on charges including attempted murder and was remanded in custody, but the riot that followed did not appear to wait for the legal process to run its course.
The family of Stephen Ogilvie, the stabbing victim, pleaded for calm and said violence targeting immigrants was not welcome. They said migrants contribute deeply to the country and warned that the attack should not be used to divide people or fuel hostility. Ogilvie lost an eye and suffered serious wounds to his neck and face, but was in stable condition.
That plea sat in stark contrast to what unfolded on the streets, where local politicians and a pastor said many of those targeted were Black and police had to help one family escape from a burning house. Several cars and a bus were reduced to shells in the earlier violence, and by Wednesday the disorder was less severe than on Tuesday evening, though still serious enough to bring out water cannon.
The case against Alodid is now set to resume on July 8, but Belfast is already left with a different question: whether the violence will be treated as a response to one attack, or as a warning about how quickly a city can be dragged into pogrom-style unrest when rumor, rage and prejudice meet in the same place.
