Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, attacked police officers and set fire to vehicles in several parts of Northern Ireland during a night of anti-immigration violence on Tuesday (9), an episode linked to a knife attack that resulted in the charge of attempted murder against a Sudanese man.
Masked men set fire to family homes in Belfast, the regional capital, and burned cars and buses after a video of the attack, in which the victim lost an eye, spread quickly across social media.
Political leaders indicated that the violence targeted ethnic minorities. “It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their origin and I will not tolerate that,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a statement. “Those responsible will feel the full rigor of the law.”
The suspect in the attack in north Belfast, a 30-year-old Sudanese man identified as Hadi Alodid, appeared in court this Wednesday (10), where pre-trial detention was ordered. The victim, a man in his 40s, suffered serious injuries to his face and back, according to details presented at the hearing.
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The Prime Minister condemns the “cowardice” of masked men.
Videos of the attack circulated online throughout Tuesday, sparking calls for violent protests on digital platforms.
The police had to help a family escape from a burning house. Several cars and a bus were set on fire and completely destroyed. Local politicians and a pastor reported that many of the victims were black.
“There is no excuse or justification for these attacks,” declared First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill. “Groups of masked men burning down houses and driving families from their homes is nothing short of an act of disgusting cowardice.”
Elon Musk calls for protests
The attack, which is not currently being treated as an act of terrorism, takes place in a context of heightened tensions in the United Kingdom following the murder of a student who was dying in handcuffs by police due to stab wounds, after the attacker, a Sikh man, falsely claimed a racist attack.
The incident also comes after a series of protests over immigration, with populist parties arguing that the UK’s asylum policy has made it easier for dangerous individuals to enter the country.
Technology billionaire Elon Musk shared several messages denouncing the situation in the United Kingdom. Responding to a post by anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson about the case in north Belfast, in which he called for protests after “yet another attack by invaders against our people”, Musk stated: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!”
Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, Naomi Long, told Reuters that “people in bad faith”, who would previously have had difficulty even locating the province on a map, tried to exploit the understandable fear and anger generated by the knife attack to attack people based on the color of their skin.
“Do not allow your genuine concerns to be manipulated by people with bad faith,” she warned. “We know in Northern Ireland the damage that can be done when you demonize an entire group of people because of the behavior of a few, and we don’t want to go back to that situation.”
Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labor Party, opposition in Northern Ireland), classified the violence as a “racial pogrom”. “The online ecosystem that fostered this will now move on and the people of Belfast will have to deal with the consequences,” she told Reuters.
Smaller-scale protests were reported elsewhere in Britain on Tuesday night, including in London, where protesters briefly blocked Parliament Square, and in Scotland’s two main cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The disorder in Northern Ireland represents the latest episode of violence in the UK in response to a crime often associated with immigrants, prompting some prominent anti-Islam and anti-immigration activists to call on people to “take to the streets”.
Pastor Jack McKee, from Belfast, told the BBC that some members of his church, who had lived there for 20 years, were being expelled simply because they were black.
Immigration has been historically low in Northern Ireland because of the three-decade conflict between Irish nationalists, mostly Catholics, who favored the unification of Ireland, and pro-British unionists, predominantly Protestants, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom, with the presence of the British armed forces.
Migration has been on the rise in recent years, and anti-immigration sentiment has intensified both in Northern Ireland and parts of the Republic of Ireland.
According to the 2021 census, 96.6% of Northern Ireland’s inhabitants were white.
Northern Ireland also saw anti-immigration riots last year, fueled by outrage over an alleged sexual assault. The charges against two young people were later dropped by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
