Suicides plague Arakan State capital Sittwe

13 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 October 2022, Sittwe

At least seven people have died by suicide in Sittwe over the past five months, according to the Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation, a charity based in the Arakan State capital.

Most killed themselves due to financial hardship, said information officer Ko Thagi Phyo of the Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation.

“They hanged themselves after they could not pay back their debts. And some reportedly had family conflicts,” he told DMG.

A 53-year-old woman from Sittwe killed herself on Tuesday.

“Her husband said that she had an angry argument over the remarriage of her son that day, and he found her dead body around 9:30 p.m. We sent the body to the mortuary at Sittwe Hospital,” said Ko Thagi Phyo.

The other suicides since May included four men aged 58, 30, 24 and 21, and two women aged 58 and 18.

Director Ma Khin Myint Zaw of the Arakan State-based rights group Women Generation said suicides are often the result of low-income families facing hardships.

“Mainly it is because of financial hardship, and also because they receive less kindness from society. As a result, they have suffered depression,” she said.

She called on local and international nongovernmental organisations and charities to provide psychological counselling for low-income families and displaced people in need.

Food prices have soared in Myanmar’s post-coup political and economic turmoil, taking an especially heavy toll on low-income families.