Thousands gather for anti-racism rally after Belfast unrest
Thousands of people on Saturday gathered for an anti-racism rally in the Northern Irish city of Belfast after unrest was triggered by a stabbing attack.
Protesters carried placards with slogans such as “Hate is the only threat to our streets” and “Belfast stands against racism”.
Belfast saw two nights of chaos after a video of Monday night’s knife attack, which showed a man straddling another lying in the street, slashing him with a knife, went viral on social media.
A Sudanese man, identified as Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday and was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, who remains in hospital.
Riots first broke out in Belfast on Tuesday, when hundreds of masked men torched homes and vehicles, mostly belonging to ethnic minority residents.
Footage showed children being carried out of houses next to the ones set alight.
Rioters also set fire to a Middle Eastern supermarket that had already been destroyed two years earlier by masked gangs targeting ethnic minority people and their businesses.
The Syrian manager of Sham said the fridges and freezers – all new after the previous attack on the market in August 2024, after riots in the English town of Southport spread across the UK – were gone.
“The attack took all the produce,” Mohammed told Middle East Eye. “They burned it all.”
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The riots continued the following night, with masked men in balaclavas targeting ethnic minorities after a “hit list” of homes housing foreign nationals was circulated.
The unrest has created a sense of fear among ethnic communities, with some people afraid to return to their homes.
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said there had been reports of people being stopped in their cars and asked their nationality on their way to work, describing it as “completely unacceptable”.
Local councillor Seamas de Faoite of the SDLP, the main Northern Irish nationalist party, said people had turned out to the demonstration on Saturday to show that they were “appalled” at the “racist violence”, according to AFP.
In December, an official report found that race hate crimes in Northern Ireland were at their highest level since records began 20 years ago.
