Syria: Woman takes own life amid spike in suicides

A woman in her twenties took her own life on Monday in the Syrian city of Afrin, located in an area controlled by Turkey and its Syrian National Army rebel allies.

The death in Afrin, which was controlled by Kurdish forces until 2018, brings the total number of suicide attempts in opposition-held northwestern Syria to more than 50 this year.

The Syria Response Coordinators (SCC) team said in a statement that the number of suicide attempts recorded in this area so far in 2022 exceeds the levels documented in the past three years.

The organisation said that, as of Monday, 53 suicide attempts had been recorded this year, 40 of them fatal.

Among those who ended their lives were 13 children and 16 women.

The SCC said there was a complete lack of awareness of suicide and many factors are involved.

Suicide affects a large number of people for a long time, the group said.

The SCC called for work to be done to "secure the general needs of the civilians in the region and attempt to mitigate the possible causes".

Suicide cases have also increased in Syrian regime-held areas.

As of 20 July, there were 101 suicides in areas controlled by the regime in 2020, forensic medicine authority chief Zaher Hajjo said, according to Russia's Sputnik news agency.

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Readers in the US can contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialling 988 or visiting https://988lifeline.org/chat/.

If you are based elsewhere, you can visit https://findahelpline.com/ or https://www.suicidestop.com/ for details of support options available in your country.