Uganda Police Force has said that it has registered a spike in the number of suicide related cases in the recent past.
The law enforcement body states that the trend started moving upwards since January and by the end of June, the numbers had surpassed the previous year’s.
This revelation was made by deputy police spokesperson ACP Polly Namaye at the Uganda Media center in Kampala on Wednesday.
According to Namaye, during the Covid-19 lockdown and the period after, police has received 275 cases of suicide compared to 224 cases that were recorded in 2019.
“This increase of 22.7% is very big and worrying,” she said.
Such cases have been attributed to a number of issues related to the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown like frustrations, stress, rejection because people have not been working and many businesses have collapsed.
Namaye also said that other cases are due to love relations that have gone sour while others have come out of rejection from family members and denied justice.
The districts where people have taken their lives most are Lwengo with the highest number of cases followed by Rukungiri, Tororo, Nakaseke, Maracha, Adjumani and Agago.
Other districts are Kakumiro, Gulu, Mbale, Namisindwa and Nabilatuk.
The police report indicates that Aswa region is leading with 30 cases, followed by the Greater Masaka, West Nile and East Kyoga.
Namaye encouraged people to learn to seek help from counsellors wherever they face challenges in life.
Source – chimpreports.com
