At least 28 police officers were left with injuries and some 200 people were arrested on Saturday, June 8th, after a controversial Eritrean Festival in the city of Gießen, north of Frankfurt, descended into mass riots.
The chaos, which police had feared might erupt due to intra-ethnic tensions between Eritrean political factions, saw hundreds of men engage in violent street battles with the approximately 1,500-man-strong German security force deployed to the city’s streets, the German news outlet FOCUS ONLINE reports.
Video footage and images of the riots are currently circulating across social media networks.
The city of Gießen had initially banned the festival due to security concerns, but the decision was ultimately overturned by the Gießen administrative court.
Security concerns initially arose over the fact that the festival’s organizers, the Central Council of Eritreans in Germany, are close to Eritrea’s autocratic ruler, while other Eritreans across Western Europe—staunch opponents of the East African regime—were believed to have wanted to prevent the festival from taking place, and were prepared to employ violence to do so.
Rioters are said to have come from all over Germany, with some even traveling from as far as the Netherlands. The festival descended into chaos last year and resulted in numerous police officers injured and more than 30 people arrested. For weeks, the police had been preparing for a potentially violent situation to erupt.
Police reported stone and bottle throwing, fights, and numerous violent attempts to break through police cordons. A water cannon and helicopters were deployed in the city as well, with police spokesman Christopher Pfaff, at the time, urging the public to avoid the city’s center while the operation was taking place.
In a statement, Pfaff said:
At the Heuchelheimer Bridge, there were, among other things, massive attacks against the police with stones and bottles thrown and attempts to break through police barriers and fences to climb. Objects were thrown from the Heuchelheim Bridge onto the street and smoke bombs were set off. A large group of probably around 100 people tore down the fence at the Hessenhallen. At the Neustädter Tor, there was a dispute with a large number of participants. There are also said to have been threats to drivers. There was also property damage to cars.“
The riots, which took place just days after the whole of France was engulfed in race riots for six nights, highlight how anti-police agitation and ethnic conflicts are a tinder box across Europe.
