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.
Last year Torit witnessed several deaths and suicides due to bride price related issues.
In March last year, police in Eastern Equatoria State arrested a man named Osman Assai accused of killing his brother-in-law, Daniel Okelle, in Iloli village of Hiyala Payam following a disagreement over bride price payment
In June last year, 38-year-old Odingila Odong, an officer of South Sudan's National Security Service, shot himself to death days after he had absconded from duty after several attempts by his in-laws to attack him over unpaid bride price.
A 19-year-old man, Elijo Otwari, was beaten to death by his brother-in-law, Aharanya Ohide, in Bur Payam, Torit County for failing to complete bride price payments in July last year.
Charles Okullu, the chairperson for Civil Society Network for Eastern Equatoria State, who also doubles as the executive director for Peace Link Foundation (PLF) said he is saddened by the continuous death of youth due to bride price related issues and he urged the government to find ways of empowering youth so that they can cope with the current economic hardships.
“The government needs to focus on what economic activities need to be done in terms of capacity building. Economic empowerment needs to be done for the youth so that they become economically independent. When we do this, no youth will go and begin raiding cattle, killing themselves, because he fails to get a woman, he has no resources to pay for that woman in terms of dowry because he is already positioned with skills and knowledge to do something for himself,” Okullu said.
The state coordinator for Greater Equatoria Land Alliance, another civil society organization in the state, Ebul Simon Ohuro, urged parents to find better ways of solving issues related to bride price, instead of pressurizing the husbands-to-be.
Ebul believes dowry payment is not the only way to happy marriages.
“It pains when the in-laws are putting pressure and demanding their rights over their daughter’s bride price. I would appeal to all the parents that bride price is not the only solution in marriage, what we need is understanding within the family,” According to Ebul. “You must sit down if that family is bankrupt, then we can find another solution. You can even look at other ways and avenues to get something little. Even if 5 cattle you take it instead of giving much pressure. That is why most of them are deciding to commit suicide but committing suicide is not a solution."