Guyana fights to defeat its suicide rate, the world’s highest

Americas Now

It’s a former British colony on the northeastern edge of South America, and home to some of the most striking natural beauty in the Caribbean including lush, undeveloped rainforests and impressive waterfalls.

But Guyana has long been blighted with one sad statistic. It is the nation with the highest rate of suicide in the world.

According to the World Health Organization, 44 out of every 100,000 Guyanese kill themselves every year, almost three times the global average. The majority of the victims are young Indo-Guyanese men.

Correspondent Stephen Gibbs traveled to the Guyanese region of Mibicuri to discover what lies behind the troubling figure, and what is being done to confront the problem.

Follow Stephen Gibbs on Twitter @STHGibbs