A young man has taken his own life due to what appears to
be psychological abuse dead in Aweil East County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.
Ben Deng Mabior, 26, threw himself into a burning house on
Easter Monday.
Authorities say the young man, who had just returned from
Sudan, was stressed by unending quarrels between his father and mother.
Ben was a casual laborer in the Sudan. When fighting
broke out in April 2023, he fled and returned home to stay with parents.
That fateful day, his father Deng Mabior engaged in a quarrel
with his unnamed wife. In the heat of the moment, Mabior set ablaze his hut.
“This angered his son, who then threw himself onto the fire,”
said Diing Aher Ngong, county commissioner.
For his part, an eyewitness confirmed that the deceased
was stressed because his father constantly fought his mother.
That day, they had just fought at the market.
“The father was seen by the neighbors returning from the
market carrying fire and shoved it into the grass-thatched house,” Deng Deng
Akok told Akol Yam FM.
“Ben jumped into the fire. We got him out when he was
completely burnt,” he added.
As a result, Mabior surrendered himself to the police.
“The father is being held for more investigations to
establish more facts about what led to the incident. The investigation will
also establish if the two - father and son - experienced any mental disorder,”
the commissioner added.
Psychological abuse, according to experts, can be
extremely destructive and has been associated with a range of adverse child
outcomes including emotional maladjustment, depression, poor self-esteem,
conduct problems, aggression, inability to trust, and underachievement.