SANAA, Jan 19 (NNN-SABA) – For ten days, much of Yemen has been isolated from the rest of the world, after two major undersea cables were cut, leaving the country with limited internet connectivity.
Global Cloud Xchange, the company that runs the internet services to the country, announced that the off-shore cables serving the Red Sea were severed on Jan 9.
“Initial findings indicate that probable cause was an anchor drag by a large merchant vessel in the immediate area,” the company said, adding that, they have begun repairs but the time frame to restore connection depended on acquiring the needed permits. It said, the cables affected were the main links between Muscat in Oman and Suez in Egypt.
Much of the world’s internet connections rely on undersea cables, that route traffic from inside a country to the rest of the world. If these cables are cut, access to data held outside of the country is impacted. While in most places there are multiple cables, the loss of one or more can slow or stop traffic, as remaining networks become overloaded.
The cuts near Yemen had an impact on the internet connection in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Ethiopia and elsewhere.
The Public Telecommunication Corporation and Yemen International Telecommunications (TeleYemen), based in the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa, announced that, more than 80 percent of the country’s international internet capacities was out of service.
TeleYemen has been able to restore some connections by routing the internet through Oman’s Omantel to their undersea hook-up, but the main lines are yet to be fixed.
In the meantime, banks, exchange shops, internet cafes and printing centres remain closed. Many of the country’s 28 million people have been unable to get online.
Gihan Abdulhakeem, 31, works as a manager at Aden’s community Lana Radio-FM broadcaster.
“It is really frustrating, she said, from the station’s headquarters in Khourmaksar, where there is a near-total blackout. “We didn’t expect that one day we will not be able to operate because of the internet.”– NNN-SABA
