Landless People’s Movement Youth League spokesperson, Hilma Goses said the youth wing has learnt with grave concern of the unusual increase of suicide incidences among young people in Namibia reported in local media recently. Goses said this in a media statement issued Tuesday, reacting to incidents that involved a nine-year-old girl who reportedly committed suicide last week in Walvis Bay, while a 13-year-old boy and a 23-year-old woman, both from Swakopmund, were also reported to have committed suicide in the same week. “We are wondering why there is such an escalation in the deaths of our youngsters when we say that the youth of today are the future of tomorrow. This rise in the deaths of young people should be a big concern to the Namibian Government and the nation at large. We hereby urge our communities to take this matter very seriously as depression is real and the issues that young people face need to be addressed urgently,” said Goses. She said parents, especially in the African culture, have the tendency of not acknowledging, speaking or addressing depression in their houses, preferring not to talk about it and this leads to children suffering in unexpressed misery and despair that affect their emotional wellbeing. “Unemployment, family violence including physical, sexual and emotional abuse are some of the prime reasons that lead to youths committing suicide. How can we best tackle the surge in suicide cases among young people? Have we looked at individual and combined family therapy? We need to address ways to best assist the youth of today by initiating conversations that were deemed uncomfortable to have,” said Goses. -NAMPA