JUBA —Residents of Torit town’s Malakia residential area were gripped by shock on Tuesday when their 20-year-old neighbor, Khamis Nartisio, was found hanging in his house after committing suicide occasioned by his failure to pay the bride price.
According to the police, the in-laws of the deceased had been demanding that he pay an elopement fee (kasurubet) which he could not raise, leading to him taking his own life.
Major Justine KelopusTakuru, the police spokesman in Torit told radio Tamazuj on Thursday, “There is a boy, young in age, he hanged himself at Hai Malakia and a complaint was placed and the police went and we went we found the boy called Khamis Nartisio about 20 years from Murle tribe a resident of Hai Malakia dead there.”
“What happened is that the boy has a relationship with a girl that started in June last year according to the girl. The relatives arrested this boy during this Christmas festive season and they called his few relatives and they told them that they want the boy to pay Kasurubet equivalent to 250,000 SSP,” Maj. Takuru added.
According to the police, the deceased in December communicated to his brother in Upper Nile who then sent 50,000 SSP which was given to the in-laws who however wanted more.
“In the evening of 18th January, this girl came to him (deceased) at home and said that she was sent to him. According to this girl, the boy took the rope and said he wanted to kill himself because he has no money and nobody to help him and that he is even an orphan and that he should kill himself because this girl went to him and slept there,” Maj. Takuru explained. “In the morning, this girl said the late informed her that he was going to the market where he works and the girl also went to her relatives. She returned only to find that the door was open. She went in and immediately found this boy had hanged himself.”
Maj. Kleopus appealed to parents to allow the law to come in when it comes to difficult dowry issues and advised the youth to avoid committing suicide but share their problems so that solutions can be found.
The police said another boy was also rescued last week in the same area after he tried to hang himself for unknown reasons.
