By Hou Akot Hou
A 70-year-old man has committed suicide while working at a farm in the Majok-Yith-Thiou border near Sudan.
The man was reportedly gone for labour work on the farm of a well-to-do family member.
According to the residents at Riang-Apor Boma in Majok-Yith-Thiou Municipal Council, the deceased, identified as Dhel Aguer Kuc, was found hanging in the early hours of Monday morning as people were going for their daily chores in the farms.
John Luil Akot, a police investigator in Majok, narrated the incident to No. 1 Citizen Newspaper on Tuesday morning, describing it as too shocking.
“What happened is that the victim, identified as Dhel Aguer Kuc, was found hanging in the forest where the farm is being cleared and was about to begin planting the crops, and nobody was close to his place where he was working, as he was hired to go and work there.” He stated.
“He had been hired by another man called Kuol Bol, who gave him an assignment of going to work on the farm on his behalf, and he gave him all his foodstuffs for work. Early Tuesday, he was spotted hanging on the tree as seen firsthand by a woman who alerted the villagers,” he stated.
Akot said that as they were informed about the incident, they found out that the footprints which they trailed to the scene of death showed the man might have struggled for his life before it was taken.
“There is something fishy about the deceased’s passing. There are clear signs that he was struggling for his life, as the ropes which he used are not strong ones. Only the shrubs or short trees which were still green, he broke and used them as a rope for hanging himself, which couldn’t kill a person. So we investigated till we got confused over the matter,” he stated.
Luil said he and his team of the Criminal Investigation Department officers asked a family head whose house is where the deceased used to sleep, where they quarreled, but he denied giving information.
“We asked someone who was having a house where the deceased used to sleep, called Mayen Deng. He says he had never quarreled with anyone, and he left the house in the early hours of the morning to go to the farm in the forest where he was found dead” He stated.
Officer Luil said that as investigations are ongoing, they are meeting with the local chiefs in Majok-Yith-Thiou border to ascertain the cause of the man’s death, as the signs never show the exact reasons for the suicidal acts, as his brother and uncle have arrived from the far end of Aweil East county in Madhol payam.
As such incidents have been happening in the region, some analysts blame the acts on economic hardships as tensions arise, coupled with a lack of stable, paying jobs.
Some health experts also fault the family members for shying away from coming forward with such tough cases among the family members to get solutions to the issues that lead to traumatic stress, which can lead to people taking their own lives.