News Obiaks News

    Eritrean men are being threatened with jail unless they marry more than one wife, reports say.
A statement allegedly issued by the government of Eritrea is reportedly ordering men to marry at least two wives due to acute shortage of men caused by enormous casualties suffered during the civil war with Ethiopia.

Over 150,000 soldiers were killed during the Eritrean-Ethiopian war between May 1998 to June 2000, a situation which drastically reduced the male population in the tiny Eritrea nation of just 4 million people.

In the statement written in Arabic, the government gave the assurance that it will give financial support to the polygamous marriages.
"Based on the law of God in polygamy, and given the circumstances in which the country is experiencing in terms of men shortage, the Eritrean department of Religious Affairs has decided on the following ."�

"First that every man shall marry at least two women and the man who refuses to do so shall be subjected to life imprisonment with hard labour.

"The woman who tries to prevent her husband from marrying another wife shall be punished to life imprisonment."�

More than 150,000 Eritrean soldiers were killed during the secession war from Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000. At the time Eritrea had about four million people.

Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. With its capital at Asmara, it is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea, across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km, and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands. Its name Eritrea is based on the Greek name for the Red Sea, which was first adopted for Italian Eritrea in 1890.

The country ranks that worst (189 out of 189) on the World Bank's ease-of-doing-business index.