Two Ugandan care workers, Sumayah Nakazibwe and Stella Ariokot, endured a terrifying four-hour ordeal as they were barricaded inside their home near Crumlin Road in north Belfast while a mob rioted outside, setting fires and petrol-bombing cars.
The Riot Unfolds
“It all started like people were just marching, young boys between the age of nine and 20,” Nakazibwe said. “They were all putting on black, and masked.” From their window, they watched the mob burn bus tyres and set bins alight. “And then we were like, maybe it will not escalate.” But the mob turned onto their street, where Romanian and Nigerian families live alongside British and Irish families.
“They started burning, petrol-bombing, the cars,” she said. “So when the smoke started, it was just coming direct to our houses. So we called the police, we called the fire brigade.”
Helpless and Terrified
With fires spreading across the city, it took the fire brigade about 30 minutes to arrive. “It was so, so, so terrifying,” Nakazibwe said, as flames engulfed nearby houses. Emergency services advised them not to leave, suggesting they wear their care worker uniforms to placate any rioters who might break 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.”
Rescue by Pastor
Their church pastor, Jack McKee from New Life City Church, arrived after hearing one of his congregation was in trouble. “When I got there, I mean it was horrendous: four fire engines, police officers in riot gear, a crowd of guys standing, masked up, bricks in their hands,” he said. He pleaded with the masked men for 10 minutes to evacuate the women. “Some of them actually dropped their bricks on to the ground and they gave me the 10 minutes and let me get them in the car.” The women stayed with McKee and his family and were “totally traumatised”.
Wider Violence
Elsewhere in Belfast, a Romanian family was forced out of their home off the Shankill Road after it was pelted with bricks and fireworks shoved through the letterbox. The house next door, where a black family lived, also had smashed windows. In east Belfast, Romanian and Sudanese families were among those who had to leave their homes. A charity worker said the families were taken to safety by police.
Nakazibwe said: “I understand there are good people out there; the people who are actually rioting do not represent the whole community … just as the immigrant who really did that [attack], does not represent all of us.” However, she added: “I wouldn’t go out, for safety, it’s not safe. … It really changed my mind. … Maybe it’s high time I go home.”
