Thousands attend anti-racism rally in Belfast after stabbing-triggered unrest

Thousands gather for anti-racism rally after Belfast unrest

Thousands gather for anti-racism rally after Belfast unrest Submitted by MEE staff on Sat, 06/13/2026 - 16:07 Riots gripped the Northern Irish city earlier this week following a knife attack by a Sudanese national People turn out for a demonstration against racism and call for calm in central Belfast, Northern Ireland on 13 June 2026, after a few nights of disorder hit the city when video of a knife attack on 8 June went viral on social media (AFP) Off Thousands of people on Saturday gathered for an anti-racism rally in the Northern Irish city of Belfast after unrest was triggered by a stabbing attack. Protesters carried placards with slogans such as "Hate is the only threat to our streets" and "Belfast stands against racism". Belfast saw two nights of chaos after a video of Monday night's knife attack, which showed a man straddling another lying in the street, slashing him with a knife, went viral on social media. A Sudanese man, identified as Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday and was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, who remains in hospital. Riots first broke out in Belfast on Tuesday, when hundreds of masked men torched homes and vehicles, mostly belonging to ethnic minority residents.  Footage showed children being carried out of houses next to the ones set alight. Rioters also set fire to a Middle Eastern supermarket that had already been destroyed two years earlier by masked gangs targeting ethnic minority people and their businesses. The Syrian manager of Sham said the fridges and freezers - all new after the previous attack on the market in August 2024, after riots in the English town of Southport spread across the UK - were gone. "The attack took all the produce," Mohammed told Middle East Eye. "They burned it all." As Belfast burned, two Sudanese women braved the streets and sheltered those under attack Read More » The riots continued the following night, with masked men in balaclavas targeting ethnic minorities after a "hit list" of homes housing foreign nationals was circulated. The unrest has created a sense of fear among ethnic communities, with some people afraid to return to their homes. Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said there had been reports of people being stopped in their cars and asked their nationality on their way to work, describing it as "completely unacceptable". Local councillor Seamas de Faoite of the SDLP, the main Northern Irish nationalist party, said people had turned out to the demonstration on Saturday to show that they were "appalled" at the "racist violence", according to AFP. In December, an official report found that race hate crimes in Northern Ireland were at their highest level since records began 20 years ago. UK Riots News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

15 hours ago

As Belfast burned, two Sudanese women braved the streets and sheltered those under attack

As Belfast burned, two Sudanese women braved the streets and sheltered those under attack Submitted by Oscar Rickett on Sat, 06/13/2026 - 08:30 As mobs roamed Belfast's streets targeting anyone who looked foreign, Areej Fareh and Twasul Mohammed organised to help keep immigrant families safe This picture shows a burned-out vehicle and home in Belfast on 11 June 2026 (Oscar Rickett/MEE) Off When the homes of two Sudanese families in Tiger Bay, north Belfast, were broken into by gangs of masked men earlier this week, the police took an hour to arrive. A single mother and her two children hid as the downstairs of their home burned.  It seemed preferable to going out into the street. The gangs knew who they were. The gangs were targeting anyone who looked foreign. In the other house, a father protecting his two children thought about how he was going to explain what had happened to his wife when she got home from a trip overseas.  Both of them are translators for the UK's National Health Service and both have cars for their work. Those cars, sitting on a street lined with loyalist murals, were burned. At Anaka, a women's collective based in the Northern Irish capital, Areej Fareh and Twasul Mohammed had been working on how to keep their community safe even before the stabbing committed by a fellow Sudanese on Monday.  On Tuesday, when the first night of violent attacks broke out, the Anaka community - made up mostly of women from a wide range of backgrounds - ventured out into the streets, braving the petrol bombs and the improvised checkpoints set up to root out anyone who looked foreign.  'There are more good people here than bad' - Twasul Mohammed With the state almost totally absent, they evacuated 12 families themselves - families whose homes and cars had been burned.  The night after, a list of targeted addresses began to circulate online and in Whatsapp groups. These homes were not attacked but their residents, terrified about what would happen, needed to be moved. The police, the Department for Communities and Housing - these organs were nowhere to be seen.  And so the local organisers - using their own Whatsapp groups, a database of people who needed homes and one of those who had rooms to spare - got to work, moving a total of 200 families and individuals, many of whom have not yet been able to return to their homes. 'I never worried about racists' Fareh and Mohammed are friends from university and were politically active back in Sudan, organising against the government of Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country from 1989 to 2019. Mohammed came to Belfast in 2016. Fareh stayed on, and was part of the revolution that toppled Bashir in 2019.  That year saw a wave of protests across the country that were ferociously cracked down on by the army and security services, including the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), now at war with the army and widely accused of genocide. Nowak killing: Weaponised white rage could tip the UK into the abyss Read More » One night at a demonstration in Khartoum Fareh disappeared. "I was arrested by the security forces, harassed and abused," she tells Middle East Eye. She remembered another wave of protests, in 2013, when the newly created RSF - made up of the Janjaweed militias that had terrorised Darfur - appeared on the streets. Someone she knew, a young chemist, had been shot dead. By 2019, Fareh's son, Morhaf Sid Ahmed, was 15. He wanted to be out on the street. Worried about what might happen to him, Fareh knew it was time to leave.  When she came to Belfast, she liked it. "The first few years, until the attacks in 2024, I never worried that people on the street were racist," Fareh says. "I was confident. Even if it was late and I was on my own I felt safe. Now I feel it all the time. If I see two men I feel worried." Twasul Mohammed (L) and Areej Fareh (R) say the city's Sudanese community won't allow themselves to believe the narrative of collective punishment (Oscar Rickett/MEE) The Sudanese women are speaking at a church in central Belfast that has been turned into a place of refuge for those affected by the riots.  There's a kitchen in which volunteers are cooking food for everyone: chicken and rice, pasta bake, apple cake and custard. All of it delicious. The space acts as a striking response - both actual and symbolic - to the violent racism of the riots. The World Cup is starting and a local woman asks everyone if they'd like to take a bet on when the first goal will be. 'There are more good people here than bad' Brenda, who for fifteen years ran set production for films and TV in Belfast, has whipped the organisation into shape. Everyone knows what they are doing. Conol Matthews, a community organiser who works on housing, tells MEE that when he encounters racism from those he’s trying to help, he always asks them who they think is benefitting from a housing crisis in which asylum seekers and refugees are dumped into the middle of working class communities, with landlords charging the government more rent than they ever would a private tenant. "It's those boys in suits," he tells them by way of an answer.  'We knew it was coming': Belfast violence leaves Syrian supermarket in ruins Read More » "They benefit. You have to live it. Maybe look not at the people living a life like yours." Matthews had his phone number leaked onto loyalist Whatsapp groups, and he shows MEE his call log, which shows one anonymous number after another. Having lived through political repression in Sudan, Mohammed and Fareh are not going to leave Belfast, however afraid they are right now. "There are more good people here than bad," Mohammed says.  "It's becoming like this all over the West, but at least here the Irish understand, they have the history of being colonised." Both women says that some Sudanese people in Belfast have felt ashamed because Monday’s attacked was also Sudanese. But they know they can’t allow themselves to believe the narrative of collective punishment. "We are not leaving it for them," Fareh says, meaning the racists. "If you think you should leave then you have to think: no way." UK Riots Belfast News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

22 hours ago

'We knew it was coming': Belfast violence leaves Syrian supermarket in ruins

'We knew it was coming': Belfast violence leaves Syrian supermarket in ruins Submitted by Oscar Rickett on Fri, 06/12/2026 - 10:35 Mohammed and Sultan fled Syria to build a new life in Northern Ireland. But for a second time in two years their shop has been destroyed The Sham supermarket in Belfast after it was set fire to by gangs of masked men this week (Oscar Rickett/MEE) Off At the Sham supermarket on Donegall Road, south Belfast, managers Sultan and Mohammed have decided it's time to leave. "It's about to kick off," says Mohammed, who left Syria in 2014 with a shrapnel wound in his leg and became a British citizen in 2015. "We've got to go," says his younger friend Sultan, who was just 10 years old when he and his family fled Aleppo to come to Northern Ireland’s capital. The two men get into Mohammed's car, which is a living monument to what life with six children is like: croissants lie half-hidden under seats, discarded clothes climb up the baby seat, and one of the windows appears to be permanently open. At a Lebanese cafe a few minutes around the corner, the two Syrians, both of whom have lived in Northern Ireland for more than a decade, talk about the destruction of all their hard work. Their supermarket, which Mohammed has managed in this staunchly loyalist Protestant area of south Belfast since 2021, has been destroyed for the second time in two years by gangs of masked men targeting minority ethnic people and their businesses. On Monday, the shelves were full, the area out front was lined with fruit and vegetables, and the aisles were gleaming. Now the market is burnt out, its front - and part of the block of flats above it - blackened. 'They burned it all' - Mohammed, Sham supermarket manager The shutters that were supposed to protect it have split in two. A large wheelie bin sits outside. Pigeons work busily in the rubble, picking out bits of food. Both Mohammed and Sultan knew that Monday's knife attack by 30-year-old Sudanese man Hadi Alodid on Stephen Ogilvie could be the trigger for a third summer of racist violence in Belfast. "We saw some things on Facebook, so we knew it was going to happen," Mohammed said. On Tuesday, "out of respect" for Ogilvie, he closed the market. It made no difference. At 7pm, as gangs were beginning to rampage through parts of loyalist Belfast, throwing petrol bombs through the windows of homes they believed belonged to minority ethnic families and torching cars, Mohammed's phone started to light up with messages. "My shop was burning and there was nothing I could do." The interior of the supermarket sustained severe damage after anti-immigrant demonstrations escalated into racist violence (Oscar Rickett/MEE) The next morning, Mohammed and Sultan arrived to witness the destruction. The fridges and freezers - all new after the previous attack on the market in August 2024, after riots in the English town of Southport spread across the UK - were gone. "The attack took all the produce," Mohammed told Middle East Eye. "They burned it all." A community under attack Across the road from the Sham supermarket is Sandy Row Rangers Supporters Club. Dedicated to Glasgow's Protestant football club, it’s an establishment that fits into its surroundings. Sandy Row and the area of south Belfast around it are a loyalist heartland wedded to the continued existence of Northern Ireland as part of the British state. On one wall, pictures of the late Queen Elizabeth II celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, with the title "From Sandy Row to the House of Windsor". Below this homage to Elizabeth is a mural paying tribute to Northern Ireland’s football team, with the inscription "Our wee country". An Israeli flag flies on Sandy Row, south Belfast, on 11 June 2026 (Oscar Rickett/MEE) Other murals along Sandy Row honour the memory of loyalist paramilitary fighters who died during the Troubles, with the crests and insignia of the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Freedom Fighters - once dubbed "the thugs in hoods" - daubed on red-brick walls. Flags hang from buildings and railings: the Union Jack, the Saint George's Cross and the Israeli flag, which flies in opposition to the Palestinian, and occasional Hezbollah, flags seen in Catholic west Belfast. Belfast riots: Why UK mobs see racial violence as 'national defence' Read More » Outside the Rangers club, a feeling that the entire loyalist community is being tarred as racist clashes with an open hostility directed at the Sham supermarket and the repetition of talking points spread by far-right figures including Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. One man in his 60s accuses the owners of the supermarket opposite him of being drug dealers, and says HM Revenue & Customs frequently raid the place. Sultan says this is just an excuse that has been cooked up to justify the destruction and years of harassment. On the outside of an apartment building across the street, someone has scrawled "Drug dealer flat" in paint. Jackie, 69, and John, who came to Belfast as part of the British Army 50 years ago, both condemn the riots. "These people are thugs," Jackie says of the rioters. "Personally, I think they’re doing the wrong thing," says John. Loyalist Belfast But Jackie and others also accuse migrants arriving in Northern Ireland of "raping and abusing people in these hotels". "The government have let these people in from other countries, where they've emptied their prisons," Jackie says. "This isn't about race," she continues, referencing a Black friend of her grandson, whose family haven't been able to leave their house and for whom she feels great concern. 'The racist attacks are getting worse' - Sultan, Sham supermarket manager "It's sad that people here will suffer," she tells MEE. No one wants to talk openly about the rumoured involvement of loyalist paramilitaries in the riots. The area around Sandy Row is largely poor, and people do speak about organised crime groups "profiting" from the misery around them and holding the area back. "Some of these areas have suffered from the baleful interests of loyalist paramilitaries and protection rackets," Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty's head of nations and regions, tells MEE. "Some of the investment has come from migrants because they set up little businesses and no one is competing with them." A mural in south Belfast pays tribute to a paramilitary fighter killed by the IRA (Oscar Rickett/MEE) Belfast is still a city largely segregated between Irish Catholic and Protestant areas, but this week - and the equivalent violence that has occurred in the last two summers - has been defined by largely loyalist groups hunting not white Irish Catholics but Black and brown residents. Still, the past hangs heavy. "History is repeating itself," says John, the former British Army soldier. "I got a flashback," says Jackie, "to when I was 11 years old, living up the road, when the soldiers were coming over, the petrol bombs were flying, and the fear of God was in me." From Syria to Belfast Sultan and Mohammed both know about war. Mohammed was part of the revolution that sprang to life in Syria in 2011. In 2014, in his home city of Latakia, Mohammed was out buying food for his family when an air strike hit close to him. The shrapnel from the blast tore through his leg, leaving him with a lifelong injury. At that point, he was married but he didn’t have children. He left Syria and arrived in Belfast, claiming asylum in the UK and becoming a citizen a year later. His wife came to Northern Ireland in 2018 and his six children were all born here. "I came here and I felt like I'm happy," he says. He worked in restaurants and fast-food shops, including a three-year stint as a cook at KFC. He had been told that, because of his injury, he didn't have to work, but he was full of energy and he saw opportunity. "I told myself it's easy to open businesses here because there are no Arabic shops and rent is cheap." Mohammed liked Belfast, liked the people and says he knew the history. But, he and Sultan say, there was not a day that went by in Sham supermarket without some kind of harassment. And then in August 2024, it was destroyed. "The racist attacks are getting worse," Sultan says. In December, an official report found that race hate crimes in Northern Ireland were at their highest level since records began 20 years ago. "They have no idea what happened in Syria," Sultan, whose home city of Aleppo was flattened by Assad government and Russian bombs, says of the people who destroyed his supermarket. But Sultan went to school here and has a Northern Irish girlfriend from a mixed Protestant and Catholic family. "My life is here now," he says. "There are a lot of locals who look out for me. My girlfriend is amazing. Her family take care of me." Both men are going to try once more to rebuild the Sham supermarket. "Life is not going to stop because some people burned a shop," Sultan says. UK Riots Belfast News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

1 day ago