Suspect due in court over Belfast stabbing that sparked anti-immigrant riots

A 30-year-old man from Sudan is due in a Belfast court on an attempted murder charge over a vicious stabbing attack that left a victim seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence in several parts of Northern Ireland.

Masked men set several homes they believed to house immigrants on fire, burned trash bins and a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects. Firefighters rescued several people from burning homes.

Politicians from both parts of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the violence. First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said it was “thuggery.”

“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said that “taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.”

Yesterday’s attack, caught in graphic video footage that quickly spread on social media, was seized on by anti-immigration activists. The victim, a man in his 40s, was hospitalized with serious injuries to his eyes, face and back after he was attacked in north Belfast.

Police say the suspect is a Sudanese man who entered Northern Ireland from the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum and was given a 5-year permit to remain.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland says there is no information to suggest the attack is terrorism-related and they are not seeking other suspects.