Mzimba Man Commits Suicide over Family Planning Issues

A young man in Mzimba district  was found hanging from a tree earlier this month near Samuel Mabaso Village in the district, in what is thought to be a family planning–related suicide.

According to our source, Lameck Phangula took his own life after having been ridiculed by his neighbours and even by his own mother because his wife was expecting a child less than two years after the birth of their first baby.

The source said Phangula wife’s second pregnancy made him and his family the laughingstock of his village because he had failed to use family planning — “and this did not please him.”

He is said to have gone missing from the village around 10 o’clock in the morning and was found dead three hours later in the bush.

A postmortem was conducted, and the police said his death was due to due strangulation secondary to hanging which was related to the public stigma surrounding his family situation.