An 18-year-old boy was found hanging in his room on Tuesday morning at Jebel-Khel residential area in Wau of Western Bahr el Ghazal state.
A family member, Justin William, told Radio Tamazuj that the deceased identified as Edward Martin killed himself over allegations that he had defiled a girl.
William said despite trying to resolve the matter for about three weeks now, Martin took his life on Tuesday.
“When I asked him, he told me that it was a problem with a girl that he had a relationship with and that people were saying that he had defiled her. But when I met the girl, she said that the boy was saying that he had defiled her and that her family was aware. She also denied knowing the boy’s house,” he narrated. “When I asked the boy again, he said he did not defile her. The friends of the boy told me that the two had a relationship and the girl goes to the boy’s house.”
Martin went on to say that after a while the girl changed her story and said she was raped by the deceased.
“The girl come to report the case to me that she was forcefully picked by youth and locked inside with the boy who sexually assaulted her and that something needs to be done. But I told her to wait so that we sit together with the two families on the matter but the following, the boy committed suicide,” he said.
Paulino Saed Uku, the mayor of Wau Municipal Council, confirmed the incident and said the deceased swallowed chemicals before hanging himself.
“We went to the location and found that the late first tried to use dry battery cells as chemical, he cracked two of them and drank the mixture because we found carbon on his tongue. We found him hanging at a shelter dead,” he added.
Uku said the body was taken for postmortem at the Wau Teaching Hospital, noting that deaths by suicide have increased in Wau.
“Such accidents happened several times within Wau town, especially in the direction of the south, the Block C which includes Hai Jebel and Jebel Kher. Most of the cases are among the youth between 15-18 years old,” he said.
According to him, since January this year, nearly 10 people have died from suicides and cases of domestic violence.