Published On 11/6/2026
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Last update: 00:19 (Mecca time)
Neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, turned into an arena of confrontation, during which hundreds of Irish protesters, on Tuesday evening, burned homes and cars, and chanted racist calls to expel immigrants after a stabbing incident of a British citizen suspected of being responsible for one of the immigrants. Ireland’s Prime Minister, Michelle O’Neill, strongly criticized the protests, calling for calm.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them masked, attacked police and burned cars in several locations across Northern Ireland after a video went viral of a knife attack that left one person seriously injured in the neck and head.
Accusation of a Sudanese immigrant
The suspect – a thirty-year-old Sudanese immigrant – appeared before a court in Belfast on Wednesday morning, accompanied by an interpreter, and refused to seek the help of a lawyer.
He was charged with attempted murder, possession of a knife in a public place, and threatening to kill, after he repeatedly stabbed a man in his forties in the head and neck on Monday.
The court postponed consideration of the case to a session on July 8.
Assistant Chief of Police for Northern Ireland, Ryan Henderson, said that the victim suffered severe injuries to his eyes and cuts to his face and back during the attack, which he described as “brutal.”
He explained that the attempted murder sparked mixed feelings among residents, ranging from fear to anger, describing the unrest as a “serious incident.”
Video footage showed a number of citizens trying to confront the attacker before the police arrived, and officials praised their role in saving the victim’s life.
The British Home Office said that the suspect entered the country in 2023, and in the same year obtained refugee status allowing him to stay until 2028.
Calls for calm
O’Neill said that masked men burned family homes in Belfast in a wave of anti-immigrant violence yesterday, Tuesday, after a Sudanese man was charged in connection with a knife stabbing incident. She added in a statement, “There is no excuse or justification for these attacks tonight… Groups of masked men burning family homes is nothing but abhorrent cowardice.”
Leaders of the main political parties in Northern Ireland condemned the attack, which they described as “horrific” and called for calm, saying, “Any disturbances will only harm society.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned on Wednesday these “shocking and completely unacceptable” scenes, and said: “People were targeted last night because of their backgrounds, and I will not tolerate that. Those involved in this will face the force of the law.”
The family of the Northern Irish man who was injured in the attack called for calm after a night of violence and rioting.
“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” the family said in a statement.
Right-wing incitement
The authorities accused far-right activists, including businessman Elon Musk, owner of the X platform, of fueling the protests. Figures from the far right in Britain, including Tommy Robinson, shared the shocking clip on social media and called for protests.
Anti-immigration figures, including Reform Party leader Nigel Farage and Reclaim Britain leader Robert Lowe, also demanded details about the status of Monday’s attacker, and Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, urged authorities to curb “uncontrolled immigration.”
On Wednesday, the British Media Monitoring Authority warned social media platforms of the risk of inciting violence and hatred due to posts related to this issue.
Despite police requesting that the shocking video of the stabbing not be shared, several social media accounts associated with so-called “patriots” posted the clip, calling on people to “protest the mass migration to their communities.”
Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, Naomi Long, said on Wednesday that the perpetrators of the violence were “exploiting people’s real pain, anxiety and anger,” and blamed far-right online agitators for stoking racial tension.
She told BBC Breakfast: “There were ill-intentioned people in the UK and beyond who, before yesterday, would have had difficulty locating Belfast on a map… They were deliberately encouraging people to take to the streets. This is the absolute definition of racism.”
The new attack came amid rising tensions in Britain, after days of protests over the way the police dealt with the murder of a student by a Sikh man.
It also came after repeated anti-immigration protests, at a time when populist parties believe that Britain’s asylum policy has allowed dangerous people to enter the country.
On Tuesday, dozens of demonstrators gathered there in front of a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying signs that read: “No to racism, only patriotism and enough is enough.”
Racist attacks escalate
Racist attacks recorded a remarkable increase in Northern Ireland, and last year witnessed anti-immigrant riots amid widespread anger over an alleged sexual assault accused by foreigners, and clashes took place in the city of Ballymena, where groups of demonstrators targeted homes inhabited by immigrants.
In November last year, Amnesty International described the previous 12 months as a “shameful year of hatred” in Northern Ireland, with police documenting 2,048 racist incidents and 1,280 racist hate crimes during that period, one of the highest levels recorded since documentation began in 2004.
The United Kingdom also suffered acts of violence in July 2024, following the killing of three young girls who were stabbed with a knife near Liverpool by a 17-year-old British youth, the son of Rwandan refugees, an incident that then led to the outbreak of riots, even in Northern Ireland.
“Behind every shocking statistic, there is a real person or family living in fear,” Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director, said at the time. “Yet too many politicians have parroted the anti-immigrant misinformation that forms the backdrop to these attacks, rather than standing by the victims of hate crimes.”
