The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm yesterday after the incident triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles.
The appeal came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and politicians in Northern Ireland condemned the violence by ‘masked thugs’ that had targeted ethnic minorities.
Police clashed with protesters for a second night yesterday, deploying water cannon and armoured vehicles against a few dozen young men hurling bricks and fireworks to the north of Belfast. But there was far less unrest than the same time on Tuesday evening after the video of the knife attack went viral.
“We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward,” the family of the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, said in a statement.
“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country ... We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” it said.
Speaking in parliament in London, Starmer said the attack raised serious questions but that “driving people out of their homes is not ... the right way to respond.”
The suspect in the attack, a 30-year-old Sudanese national named as Hadi Alodid, appeared in court yesterday and was remanded in custody.
Ogilvie, who is in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his face and back, the court heard.
Videos of the attack had circulated online all day on Tuesday, sparking calls on social media for violent protest.
Police had to help one family escape from a burning house. Several cars and a bus were set on fire and reduced to shells. Local politicians and a pastor said many of those targeted were black.
Local resident Jamie Corry, 33, said he could only watch on as his house went up in flames.
“I was actually standing right there watching my whole house just go up, slowly but surely,” he told Reuters.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the violence perpetrated by the masked men as “nothing less than disgusting cowardice”.
The knife attack, which is currently not being treated as terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in Britain following the murder of a student who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer, a Sikh man, falsely alleged a racist attack
Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has warned online platforms of possible legal consequences if their services are used to incite violence and spread hatred linked to recent civil unrest in Belfast.
Technology minister Liz Kendall said she had asked Ofcom to ‘discuss urgently’ with Elon Musk’s X, as well as other platforms, how they would comply with Britain’s Online Safety Act.
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