He stabbing of a man by a sudanese citizen Monday night on a street Belfast has raised the strain among the population of Northern Ireland and has forced the leaders of the province’s main parties to condemn the attack and call for calm. Several cities in Northern Ireland have been the scene in recent years of organized violent protests after incidents attributed to the province’s migrant community.
In a unusual joint statementthe leaders of Sinn Féin, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Alliance, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) declared themselves “united” in condemning this “horrible incident”, which occurred on Monday night in the north of the capital of the British province.
Also the head of the British Government, Keir Starmerdescribed the attack as “disgusting“and promised zero tolerance with “such abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”
The Northern Irish Police (PSNI) confirmed that a man in his 40s was stabbed around 10:30 p.m. local time and that he is hospitalized with “significant injuries” to his face, neck and back. An individual of Sudanese nationality in his 30s is detained for alleged attempted murder.
A video circulates on social networks showing the attacker sitting on a man lying on the ground bleeding while trying to cut his throat. You can also see the intervention of three men, one of whom manages to subdue the aggressor by hitting him with a bat.
“Anguish and fear”
“There is no place in our society for this type of brutality“, stressed the five major Northern Irish parties. “We recognize – the note continued – the distress and the fear what this incident will do to the local community. “We urge people not to share the deeply disturbing images or videos, as their graphic nature would only serve to re-traumatise those involved.”
The five political leaders reiterated their commitment to guarantee that “the violence and the hatredin any of its forms” do not generate division: “We ask for calm and to allow the necessary space for justice to take its course.”
Sinn Féin leader and Northern Irish Chief Minister, the nationalist Michelle O’Neilldescribed the attack on his X account as “horrifying” and highlighted the “bravery” of local community members “who put their own safety at risk in an effort to stop” the attack.
His deputy in the power-sharing Executive, the unionist Emma Little-Pengelly He defended the right of citizens to “feel safe” and appealed for calm in the face of “a clearly tense and worrying situation.”
Security reinforcement
For its part, the Police announced this Tuesday that it will “strengthen their presence” in the streets in the face of calls for demonstrations made by leaders of the extreme right on social networks.
As explained by the deputy assistant commissioner of the force, Ryan Henderson, the assailant had a residence permit and for the moment terrorist motive has been ruled out.
This new stabbing takes place days after a violent demonstration in Southampton, in the south of England, against the police action in the murder, last December, of the student Henry Nowak at the hands of a young Sikh in which far-right figures such as the activist participated Tommy Robinson.
In the summer of 2024, around thirty cities in the United Kingdom, many of them in Northern Ireland, registered unrest after the stabbing death of three young people at the hands of Axel Rudakubana, a young British man of Rwandan parents. A year later, in June 2025, a neighborhood inhabited by immigrants was the target of protests and dozens of police officers were injured after the arrest of two Romanian-speaking teenagers accused of trying to rape a young woman in Ballymenanorthwest of Belfast.
