(Reuters) – Vehicles caught fire and masked people blew up a petrol van with petrol bombs on Saturday the second consecutive night of unrest in pro-British areas of Northern Ireland amid post-Brexit tensions in the region .
Many pro-British 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 unrest could lead to violence.
Political leaders, including the British Northern Ireland minister, had appealed for calm Saturday earlier, but police said they were attending reports of disorder in Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of north Belfast.
A video posted on Twitter by the Police Federation for Northern Ireland showed four masked people throwing petrol bombs from close range at an armored police van, who were also kicked and punched.
Fifteen officers were injured in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday when a small local protest turned into a riot. Police said riot police attacked them with masonry, metal bars, fireworks and sewer covers.
The injuries included burns, head injuries and a broken leg, which led to the arrest and indictment of seven people, two of them 13 and 14 years old. Twelve officers were also injured in separate riots on Friday in the city of Londonderry.
Other political parties on Saturday blamed Irish Prime Minister Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland for causing tensions with her firm opposition to the new trade agreements.
“With their words and actions they have sent a very dangerous message to young people in loyalist areas,” said Gerry Kelly, a lawmaker from the pro-Irish Sinn Fein party, who shares the power of decentralized government with the DUP, in a statement. . .
DUP lawmaker Christopher Stalford said riot police were “acting out of frustration” after prosecutors chose not to charge any Sinn Fein member last week for alleged breaches of COVID-19 restrictions.
The DUP has called for the resignation of the head of the police force on the issue.
The British region remains deeply divided into sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal ended largely with three decades of bloodshed. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland, while Protestant unionists want to remain in the UK.
Padraic Halpin reports to Dublin; Edited by Daniel Wallis