The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm on Wednesday after the incident sparked a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men booting families out of their homes and burning 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” who had targeted ethnic minorities.
Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, had attacked police and burned vehicles in a number of locations across Northern Ireland by late Tuesday after a 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 victim’s family, Stephen Ogilvie, said in a statement.
“We have many migrants who make a profoundly valuable contribution to our country… We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostilities,” 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”, adding that anyone involved in violence would face “the full force of the law”.
The suspect in the north Belfast attack, a 30-year-old Sudanese national named Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday where he was remanded in custody.
Ogilvie, who is in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his face and back, the court heard.
‘THIS IS MY PROPERTY’
Videos of the attack had circulated online throughout the day on Tuesday, sparking calls on social media for violent protests.
The police had to help a family escape from a burning house. Several cars and a bus were set on fire and reduced to grenades. Local politicians and a priest said many of those attacked were black.
Local resident Jamie Corry, 33, said he could only watch as his house went up in flames.
“I actually stood right there and watched my whole house just go up, slowly but surely,” he told Reuters. “I told them and everything when they set a car on fire, it’s my property, it’s my property… and they still didn’t care.”
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the violence perpetrated by the masked men as “nothing short of disgusting cowardice”.
The attack, which is not currently being treated as terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in Britain following the killing of a student who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from a stab wound after his killer, a Sikh man, falsely claimed a racist attack.
It also follows repeated protests over immigration, with populist parties saying Britain’s asylum policy had allowed dangerous men into the country.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk repeated many messages condemning the state of Great Britain after the Belfast incident.
‘BAD FAITH ACTORS’
Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that “bad faith actors”, who would have previously struggled to locate the province on a map, had tried to weaponize people’s understandable fear and anger over the knife attack to target those of the same skin colour.
Amid calls from Musk, anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson and others for more protests on Wednesday, Northern Ireland’s police chief said an additional 200 officers were being deployed to the streets.
“These idiots didn’t just target minority ethnic groups… they targeted the community,” Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said.
Belfast pastor Jack McKee told the BBC that some members of his church, who had lived there for 20 years, “were evicted just because they are black”.
The unrest in Northern Ireland is the latest violence to flare up in Britain in response to a crime often believed to involve a migrant, prompting calls from some prominent anti-Islam and anti-immigrant campaigners for people to “take to the streets”.
Immigration has historically been low in Northern Ireland due to three decades of conflict between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking Irish unity and predominantly Protestant pro-British “loyalists” who want to remain in the United Kingdom and the British military.
However, migration has increased in recent years, and there has been a hardening of sentiment against it in both Northern Ireland and parts of the Republic of Ireland.
According to the 2021 census, 96.6% of those living in Northern Ireland were white, while police statistics showed that recorded numbers of racist incidents hit a record high in 2025.
Northern Ireland was also hit by anti-immigrant riots last year due to anger over an alleged sexual assault. Charges against two boys were later withdrawn by prosecutors.
