Rise in suicides, Lebanon's other crisis

Lebanon is going through one of the most difficult times its population can remember. There are several points that are stifling a country mired in a social and economic crisis that is worsening with each passing day. The depreciation of the currency and the legal dispute over the Beirut explosion of 2020 have led to a situation from which many in Lebanon feel unable to escape.
 
Information International, an independent research and consultancy based in Beirut, has conducted a recently published study showing a worrying increase in the number of suicides among the Lebanese population. This is a figure that raises alarm bells in the country since, despite the delicate context Lebanon has been going through for years, suicides had not experienced major differences. In fact, last year the number of suicides decreased compared to 2021. The year with the highest number of suicides was 2019 with 172, while the average between 2013 and 2022 is 143.

And the numbers are in line with the facts. To this study by Information International, we must add four suicides in the last week. Mohammed Ibrahim, nephew of the financial prosecutor, Judge Ali Ibrahim, shot himself in the city of Wardaniyeh. While the day before, Hussein Al-Abed Mroueh, who, according to acquaintances, "had constant economic and financial problems and did not work in a specific field", was found dead in Zararia in southern Lebanon. Added to these is the suicide of Mousa Al-Shami, who left a message on social media asking for care for his children, and that he could no longer bear the economic burdens he was suffering.
 
The latest was a 30-year-old man who murdered his wife and four-year-old son in the Daraya region of Mount Lebanon governorate before taking his own life. According to reports, one of the main motives was the family's inability to pay off their debt. Economic motives are postulated as a common factor in this wave of suicides, as noted by Embrace Lebanon, a non-governmental organisation that provides mental health support.

The organisation believes that there are many factors that, at a time of such complexity as the one the country is going through, affect these types of decisions. Psychological, social, biological and cultural aspects are involved, among others. And that the crisis, abuse, violence and, especially, the situation of vulnerability, are what are pushing more and more people to suicide. In fact, it is the vulnerable groups of the population who are suffering the most from this situation, a group that, moreover, is increasing as the crisis worsens.
 
The 2022 survey, conducted by the Central Statistics Administration and the International Labour Organisation, points out that the collapse of the national currency - depreciated by 97% of its value since the crisis began - together with the inability of the state to carry out the reforms demanded by the international community has caused the number of people at risk to rise dramatically. Until recently, 28% of families were receiving social welfare benefits, a figure that has now been reduced to 10%. In addition, the savings of these families are non-existent, since, according to the same survey, 85% would not be able to survive even one month if they lost their sources of income.
 
The United Nations puts the number of people living below the poverty line in Lebanon at 80%. Inflation rose by 171% last year alone, and the population, as recent events are making clear, can find no lifeline to cling to and no glimmer of a solution on the horizon.