A 24-year-old man threw himself from the 3rd floor of building B1 of the Port-Bouët 2 university campus in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on Wednesday.
This happened just a day after it was reported that a 49-year-old gendarmerie officer threw himself into the lagoon of the Charles De Gaulle Bridge in Abidjan.
This 24-year-old young man was due to travel to Italy next Friday (July 13, 2024). Against all expectations, since last Saturday, he has been suffering from psychiatric disorders,” Burkina24, which reported the news, quoted Komenan Koua Toto Jules, the director of the university campus.
“It was this morning (Wednesday morning) that he jumped from the top of the 3rd floor of building B1 of the Port-Bouet 2 university campus. We called the Military Fire Brigade Group. (…) It was around 10:30 a.m. that we learned that he had died at the CHU,“ Jules said.
According to him, the young man was not a student at the school but had come to visit his student friend living on the university campus.
Côte d’Ivoire records the 3rd highest suicide rate in Africa, with 23 cases per year. This is according to a study conducted between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2020, by the Forensic Medicine Units of the Anatomopathology Department of the Treichville University Hospital in Abidjan.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a report, said every year, more than 700,000 people take their own lives, and many more people attempt suicide. Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and was the fourth leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds globally in 2019.
The global health body classified suicide as a serious public health problem. It said while the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) and a previous suicide attempt is well established in high-income countries, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-up or chronic pain and illness.
Between April and July, multiple suicides and suicide attempts have been reported in Nigeria due to unprecedented hardships occasioned by the disastrous economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu since he took office in May 2023.
West Africa Weekly reports that in the past year in office, Nigerians have witnessed a steady rise in essential food items, high cost of living, and unbearable hardship, resulting in many hitting the roads in protest.
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