Activists say Eritrea has ordered men to marry at least two wives or face imprisonment

 Some activists have posted a memo allegedly by the Government of Eritrea asking men to marry at least two wives due to acute shortage of men occasioned by casualties during the civil war with Ethiopia. More than 150,000 Eritrean soldiers were killed during the secession war from Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000. 

At the time Eritrea had about 4m people. The statement written in Arabic, assures of government support to the polygamous marriages. The activists translate it thus, “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.”

Eritrea is one of Africa’s most authoritarian societies and has on several occasions been accused of “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” by the UN. It also ranks that worst (189 out of 189) on the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business index