On Tuesday, mass unrest and arson broke out in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after the arrest of a Sudanese man who stabbed a local resident. Meanwhile, thousands of French people took to the streets in mass protests outside courthouses across the country over the high-profile murder of 11-year-old Lianna.
Mass riots broke out in the city on Tuesday when hundreds of masked protesters set off a series of fires, destroying a bus, several cars and a building near the city centre. According to local residents speaking to AFP, the rioters first set fire to rubbish bins before moving on to using Molotov cocktails. The protests were sparked by a brutal attack in north Belfast on Monday evening, resulting in a local resident sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Monday’s incident sparked widespread condemnation. The knife attack took place at around 10.30 p.m. on Monday near a block of flats in north Belfast. A video spread on social media shows a migrant straddling a man lying on the ground and striking him on the head and neck. During the court proceedings, it emerged that the victim was Stephen Ogilvie, aged in his 40s and an NHS radiographer.
The attacker was identified as Hadi Alodid, 30, a Sudanese migrant, of Duncairn Avenue in Belfast. Jon Boutcher, the chief constable of the Northern Ireland Police Service, suggested that Alodid had been granted permission to remain in the countty on 28 September 2023. According to him, the suspect travelled from Dublin to Belfast on 10 February 2023 by bus and applied for asylum.
Politicians and community leaders have accused nationally-oriented activists of attempting to stir up unrest in Northern Ireland and across the UK.
Michelle O’Neill, the first minister of Northern Ireland, slammed the protests and urged calm. “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she wrote on X. “Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm.”
“I understand that last night’s attempted murder will leave people feeling a range of emotions, from fear to anger,” Northern Ireland’s Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson told a news conference, as he declared the unrest a “critical incident”. He also appealed for calm: “Sporadic pockets of disorder have broken out in a number of locations across Northern Ireland this evening, including incidents in which a number of vehicles have been set on fire. We are urging everyone to remain calm, act responsibly, and avoid any activity that could place themselves or others at risk.”
John Finucane, the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, described the unfolding scenes as “shameful”, adding: “There is no place for it on our streets. Family homes and businesses attacked, cars and buses burned out, and parts of our community in flames. No one has the right to spread fear, terrorise innocent families or bring lawless disorder on to our streets.”
The statements came as protesters set off fireworks and set fire to rubbish bins, buses and residential buildings. In particular, near Shankill Road in Belfast, rioters broke into a house where a family from an ethnic minority was believed to be living, declaring this to be the “liberation” of the building. In the same area, a crowd looted two mobile phone shops and set fire to a shop selling African goods.
Even though the knife attack took place in Belfast, public outrage spread to other towns. In Antrim, Bangor and Ballymen, the protests were more subdued, whereas in Newtownabbey rioters set fire to two cars. Meanwhile, in London, a group of around 60 people gathered in Parliament Square: they attempted to provoke the police and shouted accusations at them. Some chanted anti-immigrant slogans, referencing the Belfast stabbing and the murder of Henry Novak, although overall the gathering in the square remained peaceful.
Despite politicians and community leaders accusing far-right activists of attempting to stir up unrest in Northern Ireland and across the UK, many spoke out in support, stating that the root causes of the protests and the current situation stem from the UK’s long-standing immigration policies.
Matt Goodwin, a British political scientist and activist, stated on his Facebook account that “It’s NOT social media that’s “inflaming tensions” following the Belfast stabbing. It’s not Elon Musk. It’s not Nigel Farage. It’s not the ‘far-right’. It is the very deliberate policy of mass uncontrolled immigration & open borders!”
France protests after the murder of an 11-year-old girl
France saw mass protests earlier this week, with people taking to the streets in 160 towns and cities across the country following the disappearance and death of 11-year-old Lyhanna in the department of Gers. The French public reacted strongly to this crime because Jérôme Barella, who had previously been convicted of offences against minors, was implicated in the case.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a French politician and leader of the “Stand Up, France” (Debout la France) party, stated on his social media: “OUTRAGEOUS! The state wasted no time in arresting Andrea Bescond – who was protesting yesterday in Place Vendôme outside the Ministry of Justice – on charges of ‘insult and disobedience’, yet waited for a horrific crime to be committed before arresting Jérôme Barella.”
This notorious case has laid bare critical failures in the workings of the judicial, police and administrative authorities. Human rights activists have described the girl’s death as a direct consequence of a global crisis in the investigation of sexual offences against children. They spoke out against the failure of state institutions to ensure children’s safety and to isolate dangerous criminals already known to the authorities in a timely manner.
Protesters carried signs reading “Justice for Lyhanna,” “After emotion, action,” and “When failure is permanent, it is no longer an accident.”
A major protest took place in Paris, where demonstrators gathered outside the Ministry of Justice building to demand the resignation of the minister, Gérald Darmanin. Protests took place in Agen, where the local public prosecutor’s office is investigating Lyhanna’s death, as well as in Auxerre, a regional centre near the town of Fléres, where the girl was murdered.
Marine Le Pen has called for sweeping reforms to the French justice system in the wake of the Liana case, accusing the system of ideological bias and inefficiency.
Lyhanna disappeared without trace in the town of Fléres on 29 May, and after six days of searching she was found on the grounds of a neighbouring farm. Investigators’ attention turned almost immediately to 41-year-old Barella, who is the father of one of the murdered girl’s school friends. This was based on witness statements from people who saw Lyhanna getting into his car on the day of her disappearance.
It turned out that for many years, police had been receiving regular official complaints and reports alleging Barella’s involvement in sexual offences against minors. However, despite the systematic nature and extreme gravity of the charges brought against him, police and judicial officials displayed criminal negligence, failing to arrest or even formally question the dangerous repeat offender on a single occasion.
François-Xavier Bellamy, a French Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Les Républicains party, criticised the judicial authorities, stating: “All French people know that if they make a mistake, they will have to take responsibility for it. Why are members of the judiciary the only ones who never have to answer for the decisions they make? The task is not to create new laws, but to apply those that already exist. Lola, Elias, Philippine, Lyhanna: when justice fails to ensure the law is enforced, it is the innocent who pay the price.”
After Lyhanna’s body was found, Barella was arrested and a formal judicial investigation was launched against him. The tragedy forced Justice Minister to offer a formal apology to the family of the deceased girl and to take an unprecedented step: he ordered public prosecutors across the country to conduct a full review, by 14 July, of some 70,000 backlogged and unprocessed complaints relating to crimes against minors.
