The World health Organization, WHO, has announced that six out of the ten countries with the highest sucide rates in the world are found in Africa .
The organization launched an awareness campaign for suicide prevention on October 6th 2022, in prelude to the world mental health day and target over ten million persons in Africa.
The WHO in a statement published says “about 11 out of 100,000 people per year die by suicide in the African region which is higher than the global average of nine cases per 100,000 people.”
It further highlighted that, mental health problems accounts for up to 11% of the risk factors associated with suicide and the cases are mostly found in urban areas.
Due to the low investment in mental health services, the African region is said to have one psychiatrist per 500,000 persons which is 100 times less than their recommendations.
According to the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, the objective of the campaign is to raise awareness and to mobilize the support of governments and decision makers to give more attention and funding to mental health programs in their country.
Cameroon like other African countries has recorded multiple cases of suicide. The most used means are hanging, poisoning with pesticides and drug over dose among others.
The most recent case is a young boy in his 20s who committed suicide after allegedly losing money for his school fees. The incident occurred in Douala, Littoral region.
The WHO says much needs to be done by the government in other to prevent this suicide cases as there are limited means of actions available to treat and prevent risk factors.
