Belfast Police Deploy Water Cannon in Second-Night Pogrom

Police in Belfast used water cannon on Wednesday to disperse dozens of far-right protesters during a pogrom that entered a second night after a knife attack involving a Sudanese refugee. Officers said they used water cannon in an attempt to maintain public order as rocks and bottles flew toward them and several fires burned in the streets.

Stephen Ogilvie’s family said he was in a stable condition after the attack and appealed for calm. The family also condemned the wave of anti-immigrant violence in the city, saying, “We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward,” and, “We have many migrants 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.”

Belfast streets after Tuesday night

The unrest was less severe on Wednesday than on Tuesday evening, when hundreds of masked men burned families out of their homes and set vehicles alight. Police helped one family escape from a burning house, and several cars and a bus were set on fire and reduced to shells.

Jamie Corry said he watched his house burn. “I was actually standing right there watching my whole house just go up, slowly but surely,” he said. “I told them and all, when they were lighting a car up on fire, ‘that’s my property, that’s my property’… and they still didn’t care.”

Stephen Ogilvie case in court

Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, appeared in court on charges including attempted murder and was remanded in custody. The case was adjourned to July 8.

Local politicians and a pastor said many of those targeted were Black, and Ruth Anderson said at least 27 people were made homeless in Belfast because people went door-to-door to try and target foreign nationals. Videos of the stabbing circulated online all day on Tuesday, and the Belfast disorder came amid heightened tensions in the UK after the murder of a student in Southampton.

The next court date on July 8 gives Belfast a fixed point in the case, while police still have the harder task of holding the streets after two nights that left homes burned and families displaced.