Third night of unrest in Northern Ireland amid Brexit discontent

The authorities of North Ireland They called for calm on Monday after a third night of rioting in which Protestant mobs set fires and threw bricks and Molotov cocktails at police.

The violence occurs amid rising tensions over trade rules due to the Brexi and a worsening of relations between Catholics and Protestants despite the power-sharing agreement.

The Northern Irish police reported that the officers were attacked in Londonderry Sunday night and that riots also broke out in two unionist and pro-British areas near Belfast. Most of those involved were teenagers, the public force said.

Police Commander Darrin Jones condemned “this irresponsible and criminal conduct that only does harm to the community.”

The violence follows similar events on Friday and Saturday in unionist areas around Belfast y Londonderry, in which the rebels threw projectiles and incendiary bombs at the police in addition to setting fire to vehicles. The police reported that 27 of their officers were injured and eight people were prosecuted, of which the youngest is a minor under 13 years of age.

The divorce between Great Britain and the European Union at the end of 2020 has shaken the delicate Northern Irish political balance, which is part of the United Kingdom and in that some inhabitants identify themselves as British and others as Irish.

A new trade agreement between the UK and the EU provides for border and customs checks for certain goods going between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The system was designed to avoid revisions between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which is a member of the EU, as the open border between the two Ireland has been a mainstay of the 1998 peace accords.

That pact ended decades of conflict between Irish Republicans, pro-British factions and the UK armed forces, in which more than 3,000 people died. However, unionists insist the revisions amount to a border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.