The Ethiopian Food and Drug Administration said in early July 2019 that it had closed 42 bars that were allowing people to smoke and were serving shisha, also called hookah, The Reporter reported, citing the state daily The Ethiopian Herald. In a press release issued on Tuesday, 2 July, the regulator said it had acted against the owners and managers of the bars after an investigation carried out with local police and other agencies.
The administration promised further action, working with state supervisors and the police, against bars or any other businesses that allow illegal smoking of cigarettes and shisha.
The crackdown enforced a tobacco control law that parliament passed unanimously in February 2019, which some have called Africa’s strongest. It requires all public places and workplaces to be 100 percent smoke-free, bans tobacco advertising and promotion, restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products and requires picture warnings covering 70 percent of the front and back of every pack. It also bans the sale of heated tobacco products, e-cigarettes and shisha, and prohibits selling tobacco to anyone under 21.
Smoking in Ethiopia is concentrated among men, with prevalence estimated at 11 percent among urban men and 21.6 percent among rural men, compared with less than 2 percent among women, Patricio V. Marquez of the World Bank wrote in a blog post when the law passed. He warned that second-hand smoke puts family members, especially children, and people at work and in public places at risk of lung cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.
Marquez argued that the law should be backed by higher tobacco taxes. He noted that a pack of 20 cigarettes of Ethiopia’s best-selling brand cost $0.69, or 15 birr, in 2016, among the cheapest in the world and well below the sub-Saharan African average of $1.24.
Sources: The Reporter (The Ethiopian Herald), World Bank Blogs