Tobacco advertising has been banned in Eritrea after tough new anti-smoking regulations, including a ban on lighting up in most public places, took effect this week, officials said on Wednesday.

The new rules, which came into force on Tuesday, a year after the health ministry first published a proclamation on tobacco control measures, lay out stiff fines for violators in this impoverished Horn of Africa nation. In addition to the advertising ban, smoking is barred "in enclosed, indoor areas of any private or public work place, or any public place" with the exception of bars and nightclubs licensed to sell alcohol on their premises, it says.
Firms are allowed, however, to set up small separate, self-ventilating smoking areas for their employees who will no longer be able to buy packs of cigarettes labelled’light’ or ‘ultra-light’ or without a health warning that takes up at least 50 per cent of its surface area, the proclamation says. (pi)