Hunger deprives Aweil woman of life after committing suicide

By Hou Akot Hou

Police in Aweil East County are holding a woman suspected of assisting Abuk Angong Adim a 45 –year- old woman to commit suicide.

James Garang, the inspector of police in Aweil East confirmed to Juba Echo Thursday that the suspect on Wednesday at Riang-mal village assisted the deceased to take her life.

“The woman committed suicide after she shared the matter with a neighbor whom we are holding now. The issue is because the old woman had a feud with her family members who refused to give her a cow for sale due to hunger,” Garang said.

“In the same family, the son of the deceased had impregnated a girl and some of his family members decided to pay that cow to girl’s family in order to separate them. So she got angry and took her life,” he added.

Garang said that the deceased sought advice from the young woman in police custody.

 “The young woman (suspect) said that the deceased had once shared with her information but she didn’t relent to relay information till she committed suicide,” Garang said.

He advised the public to remain calm and resilient amid food scarcity in this lean season.

“I would like to appeal to our people to avoid losing heart in these difficult times we are going through. Some people drink alcohol to drive away the stress. These are not good strategies,” Garang said.

Aweil East County of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State is one of the most food insecure areas of South Sudan, according the recently Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released by UN agencies.

More than 7 million people in South Sudan are expected to face severe hunger during this lean season due to combination of climatic shocks, conflicts and economic shocks.