Several Egyptian high school pupils attempted suicide over the past week due to worries over their performance in the national secondary school standardised examinations, which determine their entry into national universities.
On Monday, an 18-year-old pupil in Cairo's Nasr City district was admitted to hospital with injuries after attempting to take her life, police said.
An investigation by public prosecutors found that she had not yet received her exam results but was under psychological pressure.
In the southern province of Sohag, a pupil died by suicide minutes after receiving her examination results, which showed that she had failed in some subjects, according to a prosecution investigation.
Four female pupils also attempted suicide in the province of Qalyubia, police said. All of them are currently in hospital undergoing treatment.
Three other pupils attempted suicide in the province of Sharqia, including a girl who feared that her family would react badly to her exam results, officials said.
The results of the national secondary school exams determine whether or not pupils can pursue careers in their desired fields, which places them under a great deal of pressure. Last year, at least three pupils attempted suicide after receiving unfavourable exam results.
Egypt offers counselling through its 24-hour national suicide prevention hotline, which can be reached at 0220816831 or 08008880700.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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