Mentally unstable man allegedly dies by suicide near prayer camp in Sawla

A young man identified as Bismarck and believed to be in his early 20s undergoing spiritual mental treatment at a prayer camp in Sawla has been found hanging dead on the outskirts of the Sawla township.

The unfortunate incident happened at about 3:00 pm yesterday Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at Sawla in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region.

In what is suspected to be a suicide, the body of the deceased was found tied with a rope around his neck to a branch of a shea tree a few meters away from the prayer camp.

It's not clear what might have prompted the young man to take his own life but a sibling of the deceased who wants to remain anonymous in an interview with GhanaWeb said, the deceased in the past threatened to end his own life after he was jilted by his girlfriend identified as Gifty.

According to the source, the deceased took a loan for his lover to venture into Mobile Money business after already spending a chunk of money to see her through the Sawla Senior High School but his lover misappropriated the money and jilted him.

"My brother spent soo much money just to see his girlfriend through Senior High School and after she completed, he established a mobile money business from a loan he took for her to manage only for her to squander the money and jilt him as well".

The action of the girl the source said, affected the mental health of the deceased who started acting strangely after all efforts to have both the money and the girlfriend proved unsuccessful.

Narrating circumstances that led to the unfortunate death of Bismarck, the source said, "We sent him to the prayer camp to seek spiritual treatment but he started behaving abnormally after seeing the girl who jilted him. He asked for permission to attend to nature's call but he wasn't forthcoming while waiting for him, a young girl rushed to inform us about a breathless body hanging on a tree. We rushed to the scene only to realize that it was him", the source recounted amidst tears.

The family of the deceased the source noted are grief-stricken over his death and added that even the sale of their house and other stuff can't defray the loan their brother took.

Meanwhile, the police in Sawla after inspecting the body to ascertain if there was foul play or otherwise, released the body to the family for burial.