Damage to undersea internet cables in the Red Sea has caused “significant” disruption to communications networks in the Middle East, Hong Kong-based telecoms firm HGC Global Communications said.
The cut lines include Asia-Africa-Europe 1, the Europe India Gateway, Seacom and TGN-Gulf, Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications added. It described the cuts as affecting 25% of the traffic flowing through the Red Sea. It described the Red Sea route as crucial for data moving from Asia to Europe and said it had begun rerouting traffic.
The company said the simultaneous damage to four cables was an “extremely rare occurrence”.
There are more than 15 undersea internet cables in the Red Sea, a region that has seen massive disruptions in shipping due to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.
None of the operators have yet disclosed the cause of the outages. Yemen has also denied its role in the alleged sabotage, saying it “endeavours to keep all telecoms submarine cables … away from any possible risks.”
However, Yemen’s Western-backed government has warned in previous weeks that Houthi rebels may try to disable the cables to show support for Hamas and force Israel to halt attacks in Gaza.
Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi denied the allegations. He said:
We have no intention of targeting sea cables providing internet to countries in the region.
In early February, Yemen’s internationally recognised government-in-exile said the Houthis were planning to attack the cables. It turned out that the lines were cut on 24 February, and NetBlocks noted that two days later there were internet outages in the East African country of Djibouti. Seacom serves Djibouti.
Meanwhile, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center on Monday separately warned of a new attack in the Gulf of Aden. The private security firm Ambrey described the vessel targeted as a Liberia-flagged, Israel-affiliated container ship that sustained damage and issued a distress call.
