‘It was so terrifying’: Ugandan care workers trapped by Belfast mob describe four-hour ordeal

For four hours, two Ugandan care workers were barricaded into their house near Crumlin Road in north Belfast as smoke leaked in and flames licked the walls of neighbouring properties. Sumayah Nakazibwe and Stella Ariokot watched from their window as a mob of young people, aged between nine and 20, all dressed in black and masked, burned the tyres of a bus and set fire to bins. “And then we were like, maybe it will not escalate,” Nakazibwe said. But the mob turned onto their street, where Romanian and Nigerian families live alongside British and Irish families. They began petrol-bombing cars. “So when the smoke started, it was just coming direct to our houses,” Nakazibwe said. They called police and the fire brigade, but there were so many fires across the city that firefighters took about 30 minutes to arrive. “It was so, so, so terrifying,” Nakazibwe said. Emergency services told them it was too dangerous to leave, suggesting they put on their care worker uniforms in case that helped placate any rioters who broke in. “Someone who is actually rioting doesn’t know that the person they are targeting is actually looking after their mother or their granny,” Nakazibwe said. “Meanwhile, I left my mother back home.” At one point, Nakazibwe collapsed from fear. “When they started throwing the stones on to our windows, she passed out,” Ariokot said. “I had to stay on the line talking to the ambulance people, and they were directing me what to do, but thank God she woke up.” The women were only able to leave after their church pastor, Jack McKee from New Life City Church, came to the scene and spoke to the men. McKee later said he had not wanted to go on to the streets, but had no choice.