Local Radio Channel Falls Prey To Hoax Eritrea Forced Polygamy Story

A website of a popular local radio station became a victim of a hoax story which claimed that Eritrea has passed a forced polygamy law.

According to the news story, Eritrea had ordered that a man has to marry two wives or face prison.

The story was first published on Crazy Monday, a satirical website from Kenya.

It was claimed that the decision had been taken due to the shortage of women in comparison to men.

Many websites published this story around the world, and a few thought it was authentic. These included Sri Lanka's Neth FM.

However, it was yesterday reported that the Eritrean government was appalled by the news item. Neth FM has since deleted the news from its website.

According to BBC, one news website, Sahara Reporters, has retracted the story acknowledging that it was false. There was no explanation or acknowledgement from Neth FM.

A simple google search would have indicated that the story is a hoax. In addition, according to CIA World Factbook, the male/female ration in Eritrea is around 1.03/1, which actually shows that the male population is higher than the female population in that country. This statistic can be easily found in Wikipedia, with a reference to CIA World Factbook.