A 27-year-old man committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Malual Centre Payam of Aweil North County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on Saturday last week.
The Malual Center Police Inspector, Sergeant Major Albino Thiep Deng, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that the deceased took his own life after he eloped with somebody’s daughter and that the parents took the girl back because he had not paid the dowry.
“This person took the daughter and the relatives of the girl returned her because his family was not paying the cows, on that day his father told him to go and call your brothers so that people sit and discuss of the dowry on Friday,” Major Thiep said. “And on Saturday morning they came and informed the police and we went there and we found this person hanging from a tree and we brought him down and the doctor filled the form.’’
The deceased is said to have left behind a suicide note asking his brothers to take care of his wife.
No arrests have been made but the police revealed that they briefly investigated the deceased’s family.
The Aweil North County authorities accused the deceased’s family of failure to pay the needed dowry for their son.
“The incident of the boy who committed suicide in Malual Center is the only case that I have in the county. Yes, based on the findings from the parents, the boy got married, and yet the parents failed to respond to a call for the marriage dowry so he just decided to hang himself,” William Deng Mou, Aweil North County executive director said.
The Malual Center Member of Parliament in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly, Angok Achuol Barjok said the deceased was not having an issue with his family. The MP added that the deceased wrote a message which instructed his brothers to take care of his wife.
“He was not having any issue with his brothers but I heard he wrote a message and after giving it to a small boy who was with him in the cattle camp and then he took a cow rope and hanged himself,’’ Achuol said in a statement.
The deceased’s relatives denied any misunderstanding between them and their son over the dowry.
Ken Barjok Ken, paramount chief in Malual Center and close relative to the late, denied the reports about disagreement within the family over dowry.
“No, no. If there were secret differences, I don’t know and no one knows because when we attended the funeral yesterday, people talked about what he wrote in the paper,’’ said Ken.
According to the family member, the deceased requested his family to maintain his wife and give her equal treatment with the other wives.
Health authorities in Aweil North County concluded that the victim died by hanging according to the detailed medical report. They have also confirmed that the late was of sound mind and had no health problems.
“Yes, the issue of death by hanging was actually because of family issues. He took a rope and went to the bush and people started searching for him, they did not find him until the next morning when people followed his footsteps, they found he was hanging from a tree,’’ said William Ather, Aweil North County’s health director.