Knife Attack in Belfast Followed by Two Nights of Violence

A knife attack in Belfast on June 9 left Stephen Ogilvie, a man in his 40s, with severe injuries to his face and back and the loss of an eye. Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, appeared in court on June 10 charged with attempted murder and was remanded in custody. Police said the attack is not being treated as terrorism.

Videos of the attack circulated online on June 9 and fueled calls for protest. Over the following two nights, violence broke out that included masked men setting vehicles on fire and burning families from their homes. Several cars and a bus were reduced to shells.

Police helped one family escape a burning house. Local resident Jamie Corry, 33, watched his home burn. "I was actually standing right there watching my whole house just go up, slowly but surely," he told Reuters.

Pastor Jack McKee said some Black members of his church who had lived in the area for 20 years were forced from their homes. Many of those targeted were Black. Police clashed with a few dozen young men hurling bricks and fireworks north of Belfast on June 10. Officers used water cannon and armoured vehicles. An extra 200 officers were deployed across Northern Ireland that day.

Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that "bad faith actors" had sought to weaponise fear and anger over the attack to target people with the same skin colour as the assailant. " Police statistics recorded a record number of racist incidents in 2025.

The region experienced similar anti-immigrant rioting last year after an alleged sexual assault; charges against two boys in that case were later withdrawn.

Immigration has historically been low in Northern Ireland, partly due to the three-decade conflict between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists and predominantly Protestant pro-British loyalists. Migration has increased in recent years. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the attack raised serious questions but that "driving people out of their homes is not..."