Eritrea: Unexpected Crisis to Many Wedding Plans

(Asmara 28-01-2016) Many families in Asmara are troubled by a sudden and unexpected change of plans to celebrate the weddings of their children this January, Freedom Friday (Arbi Harnet) sources revealed today.

Traditionally the month of January is a wedding season in Eritrea and many couples plan for months or even years to have their weddings blessed and celebrated in the month, like generations of young people before them. However recent changes to currency in Eritrea and the restrictions imposed on those withdrawing money from the banks has denied many access to their savings forcing them to postpone their wedding plans.

Inevitably this had a knock on impact on businesses that relied on the wedding season too. Car hire firms, hotels and banqueting halls will all feel the impact of this unexpected fall in the number of weddings taking place. A proprietor of one such business told Freedom Friday that in her estimates the number of weddings has fallen by atleast half if not more and her only hope for this year is that plans were only postponed for a few months and not cancelled all together.

The Eritrean regime has recently changed the currency in a surprise move that many presume was intended to give the regime more control of the market. However the implementation of the policy is putting even more pressure on the Eritrean public, already suffering as a result of many years of economic mismanagement.

The impact of the currency crisis is more acute in rural areas where people didn’t even have enough time to exchange their old currency and due to inaccessibility of banks nearby. The full impact of the sudden change is yet to be realised and people in the country are bracing themselves for more difficulties ahead.