Belfast police fired water cannons at protesters as chaos broke out after the stabbing

Police fired water cannons on Wednesday at protesters in Northern Ireland who built small fires and threw bricks, stones and bottles at them in a second night of violence over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street.

Demonstrators who were wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside the houses and smashed the road with a hammer to throw at the riot police. Elsewhere, an unruly crowd used parts of a demolished picket fence to hide in the street.

This clash with the police happened a few hours after a 30-year-old Sudanese man appeared in court in Belfast, charged with attempted murder in a stabbing incident that left a man seriously injured and inciting violence against immigrants.

Hadi Alodid, 30, was ordered to be jailed after appearing on video at Belfast Magistrates’ Court, where a coroner said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in his left eye when he was attacked with a knife.

He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while he was being treated for an injury to his hand after being assaulted.

When the police arrived at the scene, they found Alodid armed with a kitchen knife, said the detective. Alodid later told the hospital staff: “I killed someone, I don’t know if he’s dead,” and said, “I’m going to kill you.”

He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not file his claim.

Police were bracing for further violence after masked men on Tuesday torched a number of houses believed to be occupied by immigrants, set fire to rubbish bins, set fire to a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects.

Firefighters rescued many people from burning houses and more than twenty people were left homeless.

Anselme Shima, a resident of Belfast who is of Congolese origin, said he saw smoke from new cars near his house.

“I have lived in my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was not good,” he said. “We don’t know what to do, I’m afraid, seeing this, I wonder if I’m following.”

The families, one with an infant, were rescued and taken to police stations for safety, Northern Ireland Police Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said.

“These were not families from ethnic minority communities, these were families from communities that were caught up in this terrible practice last night,” Boutcher told the BBC. “There is absolutely no reason for that.”

Boutcher said an additional 200 officers would be on the streets on Wednesday and the PSNI was appealing for support from other forces. Bus and train workers in Belfast have said they will soon stop running because of the expected protests.

Ogilvie’s family called for an end to the violence and said immigrants “make an important contribution to our country.”

“We don’t want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel enmity,” the family said in a statement.

Politicians from both sides of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the violence. First minister Michelle O’Neill of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party said it was “a crime.”

“Groups of masked men burning families outside their homes is nothing short of disgusting cowardice,” he said.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the Pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said “being frustrated by someone’s bad actions towards those who had no part in them is completely wrong.”

The attack was caught on video

Monday’s attack, captured on video that quickly went viral on social media, was blamed on anti-immigration activists. Ogilvie, a man in his 40s, was hospitalized with severe head, face and back injuries.

Police say Alodid entered Northern Ireland from the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum and was granted a five-year residence permit.

Police in Northern Ireland said there was no information to suggest the attack was terrorism-related.

The protests were fueled by internet rights activists, and street violence erupted despite politicians’ pleas for it to subside.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the stabbing incident as “sickening,” but said violence against people based on their background would not be tolerated.

“The scenes in Belfast last night were appalling and totally unacceptable,” Starmer told X. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder we have seen threaten our communities, or those who encourage it, online or elsewhere.”

Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long said the chaos on social media “which yesterday would have struggled to get Belfast on the map” was “reinforcing” the fears of local people.

“If you’re kicking people out of their homes regardless of the color of their skin, you can’t dress it up any other way, it’s racism, and those bad faith actors need to back off,” he told the BBC.

Others raised questions about the Irish border

Some politicians said the stabbing should prompt a review of the open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland.

The border is a very serious issue. Allowing the free flow of people is a major pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence known as “The Troubles.”

The conflict between Irish Republican and British Loyalist forces and UK security forces left nearly 3,600 people dead before a 1998 peace accord.

Much of Tuesday’s violence took place in working class areas where militant groups still hold sway in the streets.

Last week, a separate case involving a university student who was stabbed to death in Southampton, England, in December was taken up by activists and US Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigrants for the violence, a view rejected by Starmer and other British politicians.

Henry Nowak, who was white, was killed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh who lied to the police that he was the victim of a racial attack by Nowak. When the police arrived, they initially treated the injured Nowak as a suspect before seeing his injuries and trying to help him.

Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison last week for a minimum of 21 years. The protest over Nowak’s death turned violent, with some attacking police with chairs and rocks. A number of people have been charged with violence.