By Watera Atai,
AGAGO
A 17-year-old teenager in Agago district died by alleged suicide after her family rejected her new boyfriend.
The incident happened in Oporoto village, Patongo Town Council, Agago district on Monday June 23, at around 5pm.
It is alleged that the deceased, identified as Lillian Akullo ended her own life using a rope after her aunt cautioned her against dating a boy in the neighborhood. The disapproval allegedly affected the young girl prompting her to commit the stressful act.
Her body was discovered hanging in a rope tied on a house roof beam by an aunt who notified police.
The Aswa East Regional Police Spokesperson, Joel Oloya confirmed the report, stating that the body did not have signs of physical struggle, ruling out foul play.
“The cause of death has been preliminarily classified as suicide by hanging,” Oloya said. He added that police homicide team was carrying out a thorough investigation to ensure full understanding of the matter.
“We opened a case of suspected suicide to aid in investigation. A postmortem was carried out and the body handed over to family for burial arrangements.
Police attributed the incident to the disagreement between the deceased and her aunt.
This is a fifth case of death by suicide in the region, according to police, with three cases reported in Agago district. The recent death involved a 20-year-old Sunday Auma who committed suicide by hanging after her husband accused her of infidelity. Auma left behind a three month old baby girl.
A recent study by the UN Refugee Agency on Uganda’s Suicide Dashboard, showed that 190 suicide attempts were recorded in 2024, with 59 deaths and 18 repeat attempts, most of them women. The report highlighted family conflicts, financial hardships, addiction, alcohol and substance misuse, domestic violence, and unmet basic needs as the main cause of suicide in Uganda.
Mental Health experts have occasionally called for creation of mental health awareness, Gender Based Violence and counselling particularly in schools, refugee hosting communities, sacred places and at family levels.
