Homes and vehicles were set on fire during the wave of anti-immigrant violence that spread across several areas of Northern Ireland last night, following a knife attack that left a man seriously injured.
Hooded men set fire to several homes they believed were housing immigrants in the capital Belfast, while police were hit by objects thrown by hundreds of protesters who took to the streets after a video of the knife attack was released. A Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder.
Fires hit immigrant homes in Belfast
Yara Navrotska, a Ukrainian who lives in the city, said the experience was terrifying. She said the front door of her house caught fire shortly after her neighbor’s house was set on fire. “I had my dog inside the house, so I had to go out the back door,” she told Reuters.
She added that she imagined that the house had been chosen because it was on a street with many immigrants. Navrotska also noted that people do not show much sympathy for certain immigrant groups.
The violence began after anti-immigration activists exploited a graphic video of the attack on a 40-year-old man in Belfast, content that spread quickly.
The victim, later identified as Stephen Ogilvie, was admitted to hospital with serious injuries to his eyes, face and back.
Family and politicians call for an end to violence
Ogilvie’s family condemned the violence and appealed for tranquility. “Peaceful protest is the only way forward,” they declared in a statement released after a hearing on the case. “We have many migrants who make an extremely valuable contribution to our country… We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or encourage hostility,” they said.
Although these requests were repeated by several politicians, the demonstrations gained momentum on social media through far-right activists, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, and technology billionaire Elon Musk.
During the night, Musk again shared several messages on social media criticizing the situation in the United Kingdom. “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUD will there be any change,” he wrote in response to a post by Robinson.
After receiving criticism from figures such as Labor Party president Anna Turley, who described Musk’s posts as “terrible”, “seriously wrong and harmful”, the businessman responded on X: “What’s making people angry are murderous immigrants beheading innocent people in their hometowns, not ‘social media’!”
Politicians on both sides of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the acts of violence. Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill, from the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin, described the episode as “vandalism” in an official statement.
“Groups of masked men who burn down houses and drive families from their homes represent nothing short of an act of disgusting cowardice,” she declared.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland reported that Hadi Alodid, 30, suspected of the attack that sparked the riots, is Sudanese who arrived in Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum and obtained a residence permit for five years.
There is no evidence that the attack was linked to terrorism and police have stated that they are not looking for other suspects.
Alodid was refused bail at Belfast Magistrates Court on Wednesday, when District Judge Stephen Keown was told the victim lost an eye in the attack.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the knife attack as “disgusting” and said he “does not tolerate abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets”.
The stabbing comes amid recurring protests against immigration, with populist parties arguing that the UK’s asylum policy has allowed dangerous individuals into the country. Anti-immigration riots had already occurred in Northern Ireland last year, motivated by anger over an alleged sexual assault.
Last week, a separate case, that of a university student stabbed to death in Southampton, England, in December, was explored by activists and Vice President JD Vance, who attributed the violence to immigration.
Henry Nowak, who was white, was killed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh man who falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist attack by Nowak. When officers arrived, they initially treated the injured Nowak as a suspect, before identifying the injury and attempting to revive him.
Digwa was convicted of murder for the stabbing of Nowak and was sentenced last week to life in prison, with a minimum period of 21 years to serve. The case, however, sparked intense debates about policing and racial issues, and a protest over Nowak’s death descended into violence, with demonstrators attacking police officers with chairs and rocks.
In a separate interview with Sky News in the United Kingdom, Anselme Shima reported that smoke from a burning bus began to invade the house where he lives with his three children. “The kids ask, ‘Daddy, are we okay? Are we safe?’” he said, adding that he was shocked by the violence. “My plea is: can we live in peace together instead of fighting against each other?” he concluded.