Suicide rates skyrocket in poor Tunisian neighbourhoods

The year 2014 was exceptional not only in terms of the terrorist incidents Tunisia witnessed or the success in organising the second legislative and presidential elections after the 2011 revolution, but was also marked by a growing wave of suicides.

The media reported the names and ages of the victims and the circumstances surrounding their suicide. The issue was not investigated further, however, and no one wondered about the motives that led the victims to put an end to their lives. Also absent from media coverage was the key issue, which manifested itself through statistics revealing that the highest suicide rates were in the poorest and most miserable areas and towns in Tunis.

Without question, the number of the Bouazizis committing suicide is increasing month by month. But this time no one cares about them and they are not making headlines in local and international media. In the meantime, economic policies continue to exclude and marginalise them.

High rates

The number of the Bouazizis is increasing month by month, but this time no one cares about them.

Among those who tried to document cases of suicide and highlight their motivations and circumstances by statistics is Dr. Abderrahmen Hedhli. He organised a seminar earlier this month to talk about this steadily growing phenomenon.

Hedhli told al-Araby al-Jadeed that the number of suicides recorded in 2014 reached 203, a rate of 20 suicides a month. December was the most tragic, with 27 cases. Hedhli said this remains a relative number, however, that does not reflect the size of the catastrophe, which varies from one area to another. The western and southern governorates witnessed 122 cases. In the area of Kairouan, for example, there were 31 cases during 2014. In economically privileged areas, the cases did not exceed 60 throughout the entire year.

As for the ages of suicide victims, Hedhli said that 30 percent of the cases during last year were aged between 26 and 30, while 18 percent of the cases were adolescents and young people. He added: "We recorded appalling cases of suicide among children below the age of 15, at a relatively high rate of three percent. The alarm should be sounded as long as voluntary death is knocking on the doors of children and is present in their psyche."

The statistics and figures announced by Hedhli, especially those revealing discrepancy in rates among different age groups, prompted al-Araby al-Jadeed to ask Mustapha al-Joueili, an economic expert, to analyse the data.

Crux of the matter

The first observation Joueili made was related to the disparity in the number of cases between economically marginalised areas and those given priority by the state in terms of development and investment. He said that linking people's despair to the economic situation of those regions and the growing poverty and unemployment rates is key to understanding these figures and combatting this phenomenon.

He added that the latest statistics of the National Institute for Statistics show that the poverty and unemployment rates have doubled among economically and socially marginalised groups. The unemployment rate in the western part of the country exceeded 30 percent, and the unemployment rate among persons with high academic degrees reached 50 percent according to the Ministry of Social Affairs. This led to a growing poverty rate in various governorates, which exceeded 38 percent. The average family's monthly expenditure average does not exceed 300 Tunisian Dinar (Approximately US$150), whereas the figure doubles in the central and northeastern provinces.

As for the infrastructure and the situation of investment and development in the regions that witnessed the highest suicide rates, Joueili said: "Those regions are living in miserable conditions in the fullest sense of the word. The most basic public facilities - hospitals, schools and government departments - do not exist. The residents are forced to travel long miles along rugged dirt roads to handle their affairs, which increases their suffering and poses a real risk to the lives of children and adults alike."

The biggest evidence that these regions are marginalised is the size of funds allocated for them. The 2015 budget revealed a disparity in the distribution of the state revenues, where seven percent of the country's municipalities located in privileged areas, such as the coast and the upscale northern suburb in Tunis, enjoy 51 percent of the budget allocations, whereas the rest is divided among 93 percent of the country's municipalities, numbering almost 249.

Compelling Conditions

This poverty rate in some governorates now exceeds 38 percent.

In this context, and to link the phenomenon of suicide to poverty and marginalisation, Dr. Khalil Errekik, a sociology expert, said: "The miserable economic conditions the residents of the regions that witnessed the highest suicide rates are living in are the main reason for the increase in suicides. These conditions clearly explain the disparity between one region and another. The choice to die is due to despair and the loss of hope in the possibility of improving their economic and social situation in the near future."

Speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, Errekik added that the hard living conditions - high prices, a paralysed labor market, a feeling of injustice and marginalisation and the inability of the successive governments to offer alternatives and their reproduction of failures are pushing people toward a dangerous state of despair and depression and leading them to think seriously of death as a solution for their social and economic suffering, when they reach the conviction that their current living conditions and death are the same.

Errekik went on to say that the child suicide phenomenon clearly reflects the extent of despair and disappointment that afflicted the new generation as they watch a state of economic stagnation and the lack of any glimpse of hope for a positive change.

The series of suicide cases did not stop with the arrival of 2015, especially since the economic crisis continues to suffocate Tunisians. This is happening amid a political failure and a reproduction of promises and slogans the citizens had experienced for years without feeling any tangible change on the ground.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.