The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack called for calm on Wednesday after the incident sparked a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families outside their homes and setting vehicles on fire.
The appeal came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Northern Ireland politicians condemned violence carried out by “masked thugs” who had attacked ethnic minorities.
Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, attacked police and burned vehicles in several locations in Northern Ireland late on Tuesday after a video of the knife attack went viral.
“We want to make it absolutely clear that nighttime riots are not welcome and that peaceful protest is the only way forward,” the victim’s family, Stephen Ogilvie, said in a statement.
“We have many immigrants 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,” he said.
Speaking in Parliament in London, Starmer said the attack raised serious questions but that “expelling people from their homes is not… the right way to respond”, adding that all those involved in the violence would face the “full force of the law”.
The suspect in the north Belfast attack, a 30-year-old Sudanese national called Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday, where he remained in custody.
Ogilvie, aged in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his face and back, the court heard.
‘THAT IS MY PROPERTY’
Videos of the attack circulated online throughout Tuesday, prompting calls on social media for a violent protest.
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 pastor said many of the targets were black.
Local resident Jamie Corry, 33, said he could only watch as his house went up in flames.
“I was actually standing there watching my whole house slowly but surely collapse,” he told Reuters. “I told them and all that, when they were setting a car on fire, that’s my property, that’s my property… and they still didn’t care.”
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the violence carried out by the masked men as “nothing short of sickening cowardice”.
The attack, which is not currently 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 claimed a racist attack.
It also comes after repeated protests over immigration, in which populist parties said Britain’s asylum policy had allowed dangerous men into the country.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted many messages denouncing the state of the United Kingdom following the Belfast incident.
‘BAD FAITH ACTORS’
Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that “bad faith actors” who would have previously had difficulty finding the province on a map had tried to weaponize people’s understandable fear and anger over the knife attack to target those who had the same skin colour.
Amid calls from Musk, anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson and others for more protests to take place on Wednesday, Northern Ireland’s police chief said an extra 200 officers were being deployed to the streets.
“These idiots not only targeted ethnic minority groups… but society,” Police Chief Jon Boutcher said.
Belfast pastor Jack McKee told the BBC that some members of his church, who had lived there for 20 years, were “being kicked out just because they are black.”
The disorder in Northern Ireland is the latest violence to erupt in the UK in response to a crime, often believed to involve a migrant, which has led to calls from some prominent anti-Islam and anti-immigrant activists for people to “take to the streets”.
Immigration has historically been low in Northern Ireland due to the three-decade conflict waged between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking Irish unity and predominantly Protestant pro-British “loyalists” who wish to remain in the United Kingdom, and the British military.
However, migration has increased in recent years and sentiment against it has hardened both in Northern Ireland and parts of the Republic of Ireland.
According to the 2021 census, 96.6% of Northern Ireland’s residents were white, while police statistics showed the recorded number of racist incidents reached a record high in 2025.
Northern Ireland was also hit by anti-immigrant riots last year amid anger over an alleged sexual assault. Prosecutors later dropped charges against two children.
