Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthi practices increase the number of Yemeni suicide
English - Tuesday 25 August 2020 الساعة 06:28 pm
Newsyemen, Asharq Al-Awsat:
Suicides have spread in the Houthi-controlled areas, as the group admitted in its reports that 152 suicide incidents were recorded within only six months, while observers estimate that the real number exceeds what the coup group has reported, especially in the capital Sanaa and Ibb governorate, which are the two most documented cases.
Security and medical sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the primary reason behind the escalation in the number of suicides in the areas of the Houthi group is the difficult and tragic living and psychological pressures that the population suffers as a result of the Houthi coup, the suspension of salaries, and the high unemployment rates.
In this context, a security source working in the group’s controlled areas questioned the announced numbers of cases, and told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that what the group claims in terms of numbers is not accurate, because in many cases the relatives of the suicide do not announce the incident and prefer to make his death as the result of an accident, fearing that the family of the suicide will follow social shame.
The sources pointed out that "internal reports of the putschists are still focusing on what it calls the achievements of its branches and offices with regard to controlling the crime while there are actually behind its financing and implementation through its supervisors and followers."
The source expected suicide rates in the group’s areas to double, especially in light of the continuing futile war that has produced one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world.
He pointed out that the capital, Sana'a, alone, witnessed dozens of suicides recorded during the past few years.
He explained that most of the suicide victims in Sana'a were people who lost their jobs and sources of income due to crimes, abuse and looting of terrorist militias.
A statistic of the Houthi group confirmed that more than 152 suicides were recorded during the first half of this year in more than 10 Yemeni governorates that are under the rule of the coup.
The statistic, prepared by the group's Ministry of Interior and not published as usual in its media, stated that the suicides that occurred during the same period claimed the lives of 152 people, including 13 women and 9 children.
He indicated that the number of male suicides during the past six months reached 130 persons, whose ages ranged from 18. to 45 years.
The hijacked capital, Sana'a, continues to top the list of cities in suicide incidents, followed by the governorates of Ibb, Al-Hodeidah, Dhamar, Taiz, Sana'a Governorate, Hajjah, Al-Mahwit, Amran, Raymah and Saada. According to the statistic that revealed that suicide with weapons is the most common method in recorded suicides, followed by suicide by hanging, then suicide by burning with fire, then falling from high places, in addition to suicide by ingesting toxic substances.
In Ibb governorate (170 km south of Sana'a) it was noticed that the number of suicides increased.
Security sources in the governorate told Asharq Al-Awsat that the number of suicide accidents has expanded in more than one area and place in the governorate, including recording dozens of cases in rural and remote areas, which are kept secret by the families of whose who committed the suicide.
With regard to the newly recorded cases in Ibb, the sources reported that the people of Al-Oudain District two days ago found the body of Dr. Abdulwahid Al-Sufi hanged and hanging from a tree trunk after he committed suicide in one of the famous valleys on the outskirts of the city.
While the sources suggested that the causes of suicide are due to the miserable living situation reached by the suicide and other Yemenis who previously committed suicide in the governorate, sources said that this incident was also preceded by days of four young men from the same governorate who committed suicide due to the harsh life and their passing through critical living conditions.
Among the cases cited by the sources also, a clothes seller named “A.S.M.” from “Jeblah” committed suicide a few days ago in the city of Ibb, due to the deterioration of his psychological condition, as well as the suicide of the detainee “A.S.M.” in Ibb prison, after he was subjected to harsh Houthi torture, and it was followed shortly after by the suicide of a government employee inside his home in one of the districts after tying his neck with a rope, which led to his death.
On the same level, a former security official in Ibb told Asharq Al-Awsat that he regretted the lack of modern official statistics on the number of suicide victims, whether in Ibb or in Yemen as a whole, during the past five years.
Despite this deliberate secrecy, he said, hardly a day or a week goes by without us reading news of a citizen's suicide, either inside Ibb, which suffers from a high population density, or outside it.
The security official, who asked not to be named, linked the period following the coup and the accompanying rapid rise in suicides among the people of the governorate, pointing to information indicating the rise in victims of suicide accidents in Ibb and its directorates during the past few months, as it was recorded, according to him, more than 42 suicides occurred during the first half of this year in light of the continued exacerbation of this phenomenon and the high number of victims.
On the same issue, a psychiatrist in Sana'a confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the phenomenon of suicide in Yemeni society has grown dramatically in recent times.
He attributed this to many causes, including depression, poverty, misery, unemployment and weak religious faith.
Most observers in the areas controlled by the group point out that the repressive practices and persecution of the militias is the first reason for the spread of suicide among the residents of the areas subject to the coup.
Earlier, Yemeni activists and human rights activists held the coup militias, backed by Iran, responsible for the deterioration of the living situation due to widespread unemployment, disruption of salaries and systematic looting, which increased the pressure and living obligations at a time when the Houthi leaders were enjoying more money and real estate.
Social researchers in Sana'a believe that the motives of suicides are the injustice practiced by the group towards citizens, economically, security and socially.
The militias deliberately cut the salaries of employees, which left family problems and economic pressures that created psychological imbalances.
