A study prepared by the Kuwait Human Rights Office says the tendency to commit suicide increased during the past four years and called for the need to contain this phenomenon among citizens and residents, both adults and children, especially those who are prone to end their lives when faced with difficulties.

The study, which covered 2018 until 2021, according to a local Arabic daily, showed 406 people have ended their lives, most of them men and 17 children in their late teens, 52% of them Kuwaitis. The study added the youngest was an 8-year-old Kuwaiti who ended his life on August 3, 2021. The children who committed suicide were 10 Kuwaitis, two Indians, 2 bedoun, one British, one Yemeni, and one Syrian.

The study showed the cases of attempted suicide increased in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying health precautions, Kuwaitis accounting for the biggest number. The study said 88% of the suicide cases in the four years on which the study was based were for non-Kuwaiti ‘residents’, while 35 Kuwaitis committed suicide and 13 bedoun.

The data showed a noticeable increase in the cases of attempted suicide by people of age of 21 between the two time periods (2018-2019) and (2020-2021), where in the first period it was 57 cases, and in the second period it jumped to 101, with an increase of 56%.

Professor of Psychology at Kuwait University, Dr. Amthal Al-Huwaila, said suicidal behavior has existed since the history of mankind living on this earth.

Al-Huwaila added: “The causes of suicide are different, some of them are for economic, emotional and social, and sometimes they are attributed to personal disorders in addition to drug abuse of various kinds.”


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