BELFAST (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2021) Several dozens of people threw firecrackers and stones at police officers in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast on late Friday, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The incident took place in downtown Belfast despite the loyalists' intention to stop the protests over the death of Prince Philip. In others parts of the city, the situation remains stable.
Northern Ireland has witnessed a spike of violence with predominantly young people rioting in cities and towns. The unrest was sparked by certain conditions of the UK's withdrawal from the EU stipulating customs posts between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which previously had no physical borders either with Ireland or the rest of the UK before Brexit.
A more immediate reason for protests was Northern Ireland's prosecutor's office deciding not to punish nationalists from the Sinn Fein party for their presence at the funeral of a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) militant, in June 2020, despite strong restrictive measures against the spread of COVID-19. This exacerbated the conflict between loyalists, who support unity with the UK, and republicans, who seek independence.
On April 8, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheal Martin and his UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, called for calm and dialogue, as "violence is unacceptable."
