Five Ghanaians commit suicide daily

It may come as a surprise to you, but by the end of today, five or more people in Ghana would have taken their own lives, a phenomenon known as suicide. The worst part of it is that some of these persons may take the life of other people (Homicide) before taking theirs. Some alarming information stumbled upon by The Globe newspaper reveal that the rate of suicide (the action of killing oneself intentionally) in Ghana is climbing at an incredible rate. The last few weeks have seen the crime dominating newspaper headlines. This has caused fear and panic with some calling for national prayers to exorcise Ghana from any evil. Available statistics on suicide in Ghana put together by the Network for Anti-suicide and Crisis Prevention over a year indicate that Greater Accra region had the highest number of deaths by suicide, recording 431 and still counting. Below is the breakdown by region Greater Accra Region 431 Northern Region 276 Ashanti Region 132 Upper West 118 Brong Ahafo Region 114 Upper East 102 Western Region 102 Eastern Region 98 Volta Region 97 Central region 86 Total: 1,556 Per the data, an average of five out of every 10 people die every day in Ghana and this could even be worse should families or victims be bold enough to give information about some deaths that have been covered up and blamed on “illness”. The Globe’s checks indicate that the most dominant method being used in the southern sector was by hanging and poisoning while in the northern sector it was by fire arm and hanging.

According to the statistics, the highest number of cases recorded was between the ages of 20 to 35 years which recorded a total of 702 and the outstanding reason for them committing suicide has been attributed to love relationship problems, poverty amongst others. The next category is people between the ages of nine to 19 years which recorded 531 deaths. The dominant cause of their death ranged between problems with parents, failure at school, inability of parents to provide their needs, love relationship problems amongst others. The third category ranges from 36 years upwards and that recorded about 323 deaths. The foremost reason for this category of people is impotence and poverty. The staggering statistics further revealed that within the year more men committed suicide than women. 1, 129 men took their lives as against 427 contined