On Monday 8 June, a horrific knife attack took place in Belfast. Victim Stephen Ogilvie was left hospitalised with severe injuries to the face and neck, causing him to lose his left eye. Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, has since appeared in court charged with attempted murder, possession of a knife and threatening to kill an NHS radiographer. Yesterday evening, Tuesday 9 June, racist rioters burned homes, cars and infrastructure in Belfast, specifically targeting non-white residents. The violence came after protests were widely promoted within far right communities online, including leading figures like Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk.
Monday 8 June:
- A knife attack was reported in North Belfast, with police arriving at the scene at approximately 22:30.
- Footage of the attack showing the attacker repeatedly stabbing Ogilvie in the neck with a kitchen knife, was posted online.
Tuesday 9 June, Daytime:
- The footage of the attack gained massive traction amongst the far right overnight and into the morning.
- Plans for road closures in Northern Ireland appeared online as early as 7:04 am. Over the morning, these developed within Northern Irish far right Facebook pages. Some renditions of the list of locations were addressed to men over the age of 18, who were asked to wear dark clothing and be prepared to fight or be arrested.
- By mid-morning, plans for protests had emerged onto the broader British far right community on X.
- At around 10:30am, the PSNI announced that they believed the perpetrator to be of Somali origin. There was a subsequent barrage of anti-Somali online hate. Around 3 hours later, the PSNI clarified that the perpetrator was not Somali, but of Sudanese origin. During a press conference, the PSNI confirmed that the attacker was staying in Belfast on a 5 year leave to remain scheme.
- At approx. 13:30, an extended list of locations across Britain and Northern Ireland was developed and spread amongst far right communities on social media. Tommy Robinson, as well as Elon Musk, promoted the list of locations.
- Throughout the day, some posts advertising the protests included requests for protesters not to bring phones or cameras to prevent filming. They also discouraged ‘auditing’, and some posts even demanded locals to remove their ring doorbells.
Tuesday 9 June, Belfast, Evening:
- Protests began at 7pm across Britain and Northern Ireland.
- Early in the evening, sporadic groups of masked men began causing disruption across Belfast. Multiple bins, cars and a bus were set alight.
- As the sun began to set, rioters took to more residential areas, where they smashed windows, kicked in doors and set cars alight.
- Violence occurred in multiple areas, but significant disruption was on Newtownards Road in East Belfast, and the roads coming off it, particularly Lendrick Street, where houses were set alight.
- Rioters specifically targeted homes of non-white residents, or residents suspected to be migrants.
- On McMaster Street, close to Newtownards Road, the BBC reported a group of around 100 masked men made their way down the road kicking doors in and breaking windows, saying they were ‘getting the foreigners out’.
- There was also disorder on Crumlin Road in West Belfast, where homes were set on fire. Just off Crumlin road, on Oakley street, another home was also set alight.
- Several businesses were also targeted in racially motivated attacks. A Turkish barbers in Ballyclare, a Middle Eastern shop in Sandy Row and a takeaway in Portadown were all targeted in racist attacks.
- There were reports of a ‘migrant car checkpoint’, where protesters were checking the ethnicity of drivers.
- The BBC reported that the fire service attended a total of 62 incidents. Several families had to be rescued from their burning homes by the fire service.
Tuesday 9 June, England/Scotland, Evening:
- In Scotland, protests have been confirmed in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
- In England, protests have been confirmed in Southampton, Liverpool, Manchester, Crawley, Middlesbrough, London, Birmingham, Epping, Leeds, Norwich and Lincoln.
- Some attracted hundreds, requiring proper policing, others were small collections of people. As it currently stands, there was no significant violence recorded at any of these events.
Looking ahead:
- Over the course of yesterday evening, violence was concentrated in Belfast and a few other locations nearby in Northern Ireland. There was no rioting outside of Northern Ireland, and we are not currently expecting similar levels of violence anywhere in England or Scotland.
- However, we are expecting more protests, with the capacity to become violent, within Northern Ireland, and in Belfast specifically today.
Nick Lowles, CEO at HOPE not hate said
“Monday’s attack in North Belfast was horrific and our thoughts are with the victim and his family. People are understandably appalled, and are right to be upset and disturbed by such extreme violence in their community.
“But what followed last night in both East and West Belfast was organised, targeted, racially motivated violence. Rioters set fire to the cars and homes of non-white residents, and smashed their windows with the explicit intention of intimidating any racialised people and driving them out of their own neighbourhoods.
“This came after protests were widely promoted across far right communities online and amplified by figures like Nigel Farage and Elon Musk, and by Tommy Robinson, who cheered the crowds on from Moscow, where he is currently visiting. It’s the same playbook every time: co-opt the high emotions of local people to whip up hatred and vilify all people of migrant backgrounds.
“Now that the suspect has been arrested it’s vital that the legal process is allowed to run its course. But there is no justification, none, for exploiting this tragedy to stir up hatred against any community. HOPE not hate stand in solidarity with the communities of Belfast who are dealing with the violence of the riots, which we sadly expect to continue today.”
