(Reuters) – Cars were set on fire and masked people bombed a police van with gas stations on Saturday, the second consecutive night of disorder in pro-British parts of Northern Ireland amid post-Brexit tensions in the region.
Many pro-British trade unionists are fiercely opposed to the new trade barriers introduced between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as part of Britain’s exit from the EU and have warned that their malaise can lead to violence.
Political leaders, including Britain’s Northern Ireland minister, called for calm on Saturday, but police said they watched reports of disorder in Newtownabbey, on the northern outskirts of Belfast.
A video posted on Twitter by the Northern Ireland Police Federation showed four masked individuals throwing petrol bombs up close at an armored police van, which they also kicked and punched.
Fifteen police officers were injured in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday when a small local protest turned into a riot. Police said the protesters attacked them with masonry, metal shafts, fireworks and sewer covers.
The injuries included burns, head injuries and a broken leg, resulting in the arrest and prosecution of seven people, two of them aged 13 and 14. Twelve police officers were also wounded in separate clashes on Friday in the city of Londonderry.
Other political parties blamed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland’s prime minister, Arlene Foster, on Saturday for stoking tensions with her staunch opposition to the new trade deals.
“For their words and actions, they sent a very dangerous message to young people in loyal areas,” said Gerry Kelly, a legislator for the pro-Irish party Sinn Fein, who shares power in the delegated government with the DUP, in a statement.
A DUP lawmaker, Christopher Stalford, said the protesters were “acting out of frustration” after prosecutors chose not to accuse any member of Sinn Fein last week for alleged violations of COVID-19 restrictions.
The DUP asked the chief of the police force to resign because of the issue.
The British-controlled region remains deeply divided on sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland, while Protestant trade unionists want to stay in the United Kingdom.
Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Daniel Wallis