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 out of their homes and setting vehicles on fire.
The call comes as a Sudanese man appears in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Northern Ireland politicians condemn violence by “masked thugs” who have targeted ethnic minorities.
Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, attacked police and set vehicles on fire in several locations across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening after a video of the stabbing attack went viral.
“We want to make it very clear that overnight unrest is not welcome and that peaceful protests are the only way forward,” the family of the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, said in a statement.
“We have many migrants who make extremely valuable contributions to our country… We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” he said.
Speaking outside Parliament in London, Starmer said “the attack raised serious questions but that “driving people out of their homes was not… the right way to respond”, adding that everyone 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 named Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday where he was remanded in custody.
Ogilvie, aged in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his face and back, the court heard.
‘IT’S MY PROPERTY’
Videos of the attack circulated online throughout the day Tuesday, sparking calls for violent protests on social media.
Police had to help a family escape a burning house. Several cars and a bus were set on fire and reduced to shells. Local politicians and a pastor said many of those targeted were black.
Local resident Jamie Corry, 33, said he could only watch as his house caught fire.
“I was actually there, watching my whole house collapse, slowly but surely,” he told Reuters. “I told them and everyone, when they set a car on fire, it’s my property, it’s my property…and they still didn’t care.”
Northern Ireland Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill called the violence carried out by the masked men “nothing short of disgusting cowardice”.
The attack, which is not currently considered terrorism, comes at a time of heightened tensions in Britain following the killing of a handcuffed student by police as he died of stab wounds after his killer, a Sikh, falsely alleged a racist attack.
It also follows repeated protests against immigration, with populist parties saying Britain’s asylum policy had allowed dangerous men into the country.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reposted numerous messages denouncing the state of the UK following the Belfast incident.
“ACTORS OF BAD FAITH”
Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that “bad faith actors” who would previously have struggled to find the province on a map had sought to use people’s understandable fear and anger over the stabbing to target those with the same skin color.
As Musk, anti-immigration campaigner Tommy Robinson and others called for more protests on Wednesday, Northern Ireland’s police chief said 200 additional officers were being deployed to the streets.
“These idiots didn’t just target ethnic minority groups…they targeted society,” said Police Chief Jon Boutcher.
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 unrest in Northern Ireland is the latest violence to erupt in the UK in response to a crime, often suspected of involving a migrant, leading to calls from some prominent anti-Islam and anti-immigration campaigners for people to “take to the streets”.
Immigration has always been low in Northern Ireland due to the three-decade conflict between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking Irish unity and mainly Protestant pro-British “loyalists” wishing to remain in the United Kingdom and the British army.
However, migration has increased in recent years and there has been a hardening of sentiment against it, both in Northern Ireland and parts of the Republic of Ireland.
According to the 2021 census, 96.6% of people in Northern Ireland were white, while police statistics show the number of recorded racist incidents hit a record high in 2025.
Northern Ireland was also hit by anti-immigrant riots last year, amid anger over an alleged sexual assault. Charges against two boys were later dropped by prosecutors.
