(ProsperNews.net) – Riots between Eritrean migrants broke in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday evening, February 17, prompting a 10-hour stand-off with police. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department made several arrests as rival gangs from the African country clashed at a cultural festival that descended into chaos. Police arrested and charged a woman with inciting a riot, assaulting a government official, failure to disperse, and injury to property, and a further seven were charged with impeding traffic and failure to disperse.
A police press release described attacks on officers as soon as they arrived at the scene at around 7.30 in the evening. The statement said that police issued several dispersal orders in English and Spanish, but the response was aggression from crowds “wielding sticks, rocks and other items.”
The Charlotte Fire Department attended the scene after rioters set fire to a tractor-trailer, and fire officers assisted police in dispersing protestors and containing the disorder.
The cause of the disturbance was not immediately clear, but reports suggest the clashes pitted supporters against opponents of Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki, with one side hosting a cultural event and the other turning out to object. There were similar clashes in the Dutch city of The Hague on the same evening.
At least eight police officers were injured in the violence as Afwerki supporters fought opponents on the streets of the usually quiet city, home to the International Criminal Court and the political capital of the Netherlands.
Disturbances broke out when Eritrean government supporters organized a conference and were met with violent opposition. Mayor Jan Van Zanen later revealed that in addition to the eight police officers, almost three dozen security officers were hurt, and rioters set fire to cars and buses across the city.
Geert Wilders, who won last year’s Dutch general election and fiercely opposes mass immigration to Europe, responded with fury, saying his law-making colleagues must agree to a coalition government and restore order to the Netherlands.
Copyright 2024, ProsperNews.net
