Marry two wives or be jailed, Eritrea 'appalled' by hoax forced polygamy story

Men in Eritrea have been asked by the President Isaias Afwerki-led government to marry more than one wife or risk being jailed for life.

This is contained in a statement in Arabic by the Grand Mufti (the highest official of religious law in the country) which scanned copy surfaced on social media sites on Thursday last week.
In the statement, Eritrea called for all men in the country to marry at least two wives and the government assured the men that it would pay for the marriage ceremonies and houses.
According to the government, the order is because there is an acute shortage of men occasioned by causalities during the civil war with Ethiopia.

Afkinsider.com said the document, which could not be independently verified, warned that any man or woman who opposes the decision “will face a life sentence”.

The document in Arabic, which is in Arabic, says, “Based on the law of God in polygamy, and given the circumstances 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.”

However, the hoax which was first published online on a Kenyan news site called Crazy Monday has been debunked by Eritrea.

Some men have commented on Twitter that they are ready to travel to Eritrea to find a new wife.
Crazy Monday, which is published by the Standard newspaper, is well known for its focus on scandalous stories and gossip as part of an attempt to attract a younger readership, says Mathias Muindi from the BBC's media monitoring service.

But this has not stopped it being reported in many countries from Nigeria to South Africa, with some suggesting that it was true.

The story said that to make up for the shortage of men in the country, following the civil war with Ethiopia from 1998-2000, every man must marry at least two women or face imprisonment.

It has been trending on Twitter in Nigeria, and other countries, for several days with people sharing links to the Eritrea's visa application documents.

Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel tweeted that "the media frenzy to parrot this ludicrous, fabricated and trite story... is appalling".

One news website, Sahara Reporters, has retracted the story acknowledging that it was false.

In another tweet Mr Yemane said "the story illustrates [the] vileness of the dark forces of disinformation and proclivity of others to readily embrace the negative narrative on Eritrea".