Masked rioters pelted police with bricks and petrol bombs across Belfast for a second night on Wednesday, hours after the man accused of a brutal stabbing appeared in court and made no reply to the charges against him.
The victim, Stephen Ogilvie, lost his left eye and suffered deep lacerations to his face after he was attacked at about 10.30pm on Monday outside a block of flats in north Belfast. Video on social media showed a man straddling him and striking at his head and neck. A kitchen knife was recovered from the scene.
“Hadi Alodid legally granted asylum before stabbing; 27 made homeless in Belfast unrest”
Hadi Alodid, 30, from Sudan, was remanded in custody charged with attempted murder, possessing a knife and threatening to kill an NHS radiographer. He did not speak during his court appearance at Laganside magistrates court, and was denied bail. The charges were put to him through an Arabic interpreter.
Alodid crossed the Irish border into Northern Ireland in February 2023 and claimed asylum upon arrival. His claim was accepted and he was granted five years’ leave to remain in September 2023, meaning he was in the UK legally as a refugee, with his claim processed by the Home Office. Reports have claimed he flew to Dublin from Paris, but it is not known when. Anyone from outside the EU travelling legally to Dublin is not stopped at the airport and is free to travel to Northern Ireland under the Common Travel Area — a long-standing open-border zone comprising the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
The stabbing prompted violence across the city, with rioters targeting immigrants’ homes and setting fire to buses, properties and police cars. Cabinet Office minister Baroness Anderson told the House of Lords that 27 people were made homeless on Tuesday night “because people went door-to-door to try and target foreign nationals to burn them out of their homes”.
Police deployed water cannons on protesters in Co Antrim after they were pelted with bricks. A large department for infrastructure vehicle was set alight as demonstrators confronted police near the Sandyknowes roundabout in Newtownabbey, north-west of Belfast. Rioters attempted to set fire to a property near a petrol station, throwing petrol bombs at police lines.
Ogilvie’s family appealed for calm, expressing their “disgust” at the scenes. “We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward,” the family said in a statement issued via police.
Social media platform X was among those contacted by the communications regulator Ofcom about online content potentially linked to the violence. Elon Musk rejected claims that he is to blame for inciting disorder. Keir Starmer vowed to “crack down on anyone who is fuelling this division”.