Has El-Sisi driven up suicide rates in Egypt?

This people have found no one to show them compassion,” read the title of a statement delivered by former Egyptian Defence Minister Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on 3 July 2013, announcing a military coup that removed the late Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected civilian president.

It never crossed Egyptians’ minds that the general who promised them “compassion”, and who has been president since 2014 — now serving a third term extending to 2030 — would preside over a period during which the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, would come to an end under the weight of harsh living and economic conditions.

The near-daily reports of suicides in Egypt have sparked widespread debate and raised pressing questions about the causes, implications and messages behind the phenomenon, as suicide has increasingly become, for some, an escape from poverty, illness and unemployment, and for others, a form of protest and dissent.

Rising rates

Egypt tops the list of Arab countries in terms of the number of suicides, recording 3,799 cases in 2016, including 3,095 men and 704 women, according to the World Health Organization.

In 2019, 3,022 people died by suicide in Egypt, according to the organisation’s statistics, although the Egyptian government disputes the accuracy of these figures.

Egyptian authorities do not publish precise annual statistics on suicide cases and often remain silent about the underlying causes, usually attributing them to mental illness.

Local newspapers regularly report incidents of people taking their own lives through a variety of common methods, including hanging, ingesting poison, jumping from high places, drowning in the Nile, self-immolation, deliberately stepping in front of trains or metro carriages, slitting arteries, stabbing, or shooting themselves. However, the press tends to avoid using the word “suicide”, instead focusing on phrases such as “a body was found and investigations are underway to determine the circumstances”, according to a former editor-in-chief who spoke to Middle East Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Suicide figures in the Arab world’s most populous country do not include failed attempts or cases where individuals survive after receiving hospital treatment. They also exclude suicides taking place inside prisons and detention centres.

Many Egyptian families avoid reporting suicides involving relatives out of fear of social stigma or legal scrutiny.

Egypt surpasses Arab countries experiencing armed conflict and civil war, such as Sudan and Yemen, in the number of suicides, according to the same UN-affiliated organisation — a telling indication of the severity of the political, economic and social pressures weighing on Egyptian society.

According to the Arab Foundation for the Support of Civil Society and Human Rights, the governorates of Giza, Cairo and Sohag recorded the highest suicide rates geographically in 2024. The highest rates were among people aged between 21 and 30, with men more likely than women to take their own lives, and unmarried individuals more likely than married people. February and March recorded the highest monthly figures.

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Why are Egyptians committing suicide?

Several years ago, Daftar Ahwal for Data Research, an independent Cairo-based research institute, offered an analysis of the causes behind the phenomenon through its observatory on suicide cases in Egypt between 2011 and 2017. It revealed that family disputes were the leading cause of suicide, followed by illness-related factors, with financial hardship ranking third, while academic pressures, romantic problems and work-related reasons came further down the list.

The suicide of Egyptian blogger Basant Suleiman last April — when she jumped from the 13th floor during a livestream in Alexandria — once again drew attention to the phenomenon of suicides carried out in public or broadcast live, as a way of condemning society or conveying a message of protest against certain circumstances.

According to data from the World Health Organization, the year preceding the military coup saw 1,264 suicides in Egypt in 2012. But the number doubled to 2,584 cases in 2021, according to an official statement issued by the Egyptian Public Prosecutor.

Amir Mahmoud, 36, told Middle East Monitor that his psychological state is worse than Basant’s. “Life is slipping through my fingers – no marriage, no family and no financial or professional stability. The pressures are endless,” he said.

The circumstances and causes of suicide vary from one person to another, ranging from psychological disorders and family breakdown to economic pressures, loss of hope in the future, addiction, cyberbullying and weak religious commitment, according to family and social relations academic Mai El-Sharkawy.

Political repression

In Egypt, suicide is no longer linked to a single cause. It has become the outcome of accumulated psychological, social, economic and political pressures.

More than one factor may converge in a single case, especially amid growing repression and injustice, worsening inflation, rising poverty and unemployment, the collapse of the local currency, and low wages and salaries. Meanwhile, wealth appears concentrated in the hands of a limited class of people in staggering amounts that signal unprecedented excess, according to sociologist Anas El-Masry.

Human Rights Watch says Egyptian authorities have systematically dismantled basic freedoms and suffocated civic space throughout 2025. Economic crises, coupled with insufficient state funding for public services such as education and healthcare, have undermined people’s social and economic rights.

Millions still live in poverty or near-poverty, facing soaring inflation without adequate social protection measures. Meanwhile, a Human Rights Watch analysis of state budgets from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026 found that spending on education and healthcare had fallen below constitutional requirements and international standards. (report link: https://urli.info/1pnOG).

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Alarming messages

At the time of writing this article, a 19-year-old Egyptian girl ended her life by hanging in the town of Farshut in Qena governorate, according to local newspapers.

Early last month, a 64-year-old man died by suicide after hanging himself from the fence of a medical centre in Damietta governorate in the Nile Delta, protesting delays in obtaining his medical paperwork despite his age and deteriorating health.

That same month, a young man ended his life by hanging himself from the Mezalat Bridge in Shubra El-Kheima, north of Cairo, after fastening a rope to the bridge railing and around his neck, leaving his body suspended in a shocking scene.

That shock may fade when one considers that around 60 percent of Egypt’s population is either poor or vulnerable to poverty, according to World Bank estimates, which puy the country’s poverty rate at 33.5 per cent in 2021.

Economists expect more Egyptians to fall into poverty following the currency float in March 2024, which saw the local currency plunge to nearly 53 Egyptian pounds against the dollar amid soaring prices, with the Egyptian government attributing the crisis to escalating geopolitical tensions in the region.

Sherif Helaly, executive director of the Arab Foundation for the Support of Civil Society and Human Rights, stressed the need for a comprehensive national strategy to address suicide, one that takes into account its root causes, particularly economic and social challenges and rising poverty levels, which have become a powerful driver pushing people to relinquish their right to life.

Poverty tops a long list of causes of suicide in Egypt, fuelled by widespread public frustration, widespread fear, political deadlock, economic failure, sexual repression and weakening religious commitment, making recent suicide cases a warning sign for all.

Basant’s suicide during a livestream, the elderly man’s suicide atop the medical commission wall, and the young man’s death on the Mezalat Bridge all resemble messages — perhaps political or social in nature — carrying silent protest and suppressed anger buried deep within Egyptian society.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.