South Sudan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, a World Health Organization report shows.

According to the report released last week, South Sudan ranks at position 13 out of 172 countries surveyed.

About 20 out of 100,000 people in South Sudan ended their life in 2012, the report says.

On an estimated population of 10 million, it means 2,000 people in the country committed suicide that year.

Double as many men and women killed themselves in South Sudan. Of the 2,000 suicides in 2012, roughly 1,360 were men and 640, women.

South Sudan scored the fourth highest in Africa, after Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi. It was closely followed by Uganda.

The report, the first of its kind, shattered the general belief that suicide is a mainly Western phenomenon.

In fact, it showed that three quarter of all suicides in 2012 occurred in poor and middle-income countries.

Eastern Africa in particular, stretching from Sudan to Mozambique, is one of the regions with the highest suicide rates in the world.

Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for people between the age of 15 and 29 years globally.

The report also found that the most common methods of suicide were hanging, firearms or the ingestion of pesticides.

The availability of any of these methods proved a major reason why some countries had higher rates than others.

It may partly explain the high rate in South Sudan, where weapons are readily available among the population.

Although the reasons for people to take their own life are complex, the report listed a number of risk factors, most of which apply to South Sudan.

“There is no single explanation of why people die by suicide. However, many suicides happen impulsively and, in such circumstances, easy access to a means of suicide can make a difference as to whether a person lives or dies,” said the report.

“Of all deaths from suicide, 22% can be attributed to the use of alcohol, which means that every 5th suicide would not occur if alcohol were not consumed,” the report says.

South Sudanese have had more than their fair share of both, having experienced war for 40 years since 1955, and suffering from drought and floods on a regular basis.

Having been part of a society where suicide was a criminal offence may partly explain why cases in South Sudan are rarely reported in the media.