The disorder in Belfast was fuelled by people online who would have struggled to find the city on a map before a recent stabbing attack, a senior Northern Ireland minister has said.
Naomi Long, the minister of justice of Northern Ireland and leader of the Alliance party, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “bad faith actors” had incited racism in the city.
Rioters set fire to a bus and properties in Belfast on Tuesday evening in what were billed as “protests” in response to a stabbing in the city that was allegedly committed by a 30-year-old Sudanese refugee who has been charged with attempted murder. He is due to appear at Belfast magistrates court on Wednesday.
Long told the BBC: “The first thing to say is all of us were absolutely horrified and terrified in the wake of the brutal attack that took place in Belfast on Sunday night.
“I understand that tensions are high and people are frightened and angry in some cases about what happened.”
She said the stabbing attack on Sunday was “particularly gruesome”.
“What distresses and disturbs me is there are those that prior to yesterday would have struggled to find Belfast on a map who are online, who are sharing incitement and encouragement for people and weaponising the fear that people genuinely have about what happened to try and turn this into some kind of anti-immigration issue or a racist protest,” Long said.
“Ultimately if you’re driving people from their homes based on the colour of their skin you can’t dress that up any other way – it’s racism.
“Those bad faith actors need to take a step back. We in Northern Ireland know better than anyone else in these islands what it is to demonise a whole group of people and assume that everyone associated with that group is representative of them.”
She added: “This individual who undertook this brutal attack is one individual. The police are dealing with that. I would appeal to people to let the justice system take its course that’s the proper thing to do.
“All that happened last night was that other innocent people were victimised and that is completely unacceptable.”
Detectives have said there was no indication that the knife attack was terror-related.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has launched a “critical incident” in response to the attack, which was captured on video and appears to show a man stabbing at the victim’s head and neck while the victim was lying on the ground.
Earlier on Tuesday, police revealed details on the arrested man’s immigration status and how he travelled to the UK. He entered Northern Ireland across the Irish border in February 2023 having flown to Dublin from Paris. The suspect claimed asylum upon arrival and in September 2023 was granted leave to remain in the UK until 2028.
