London CNN –
Damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea is disrupting telecommunications networks and forcing providers to reroute up to a quarter of data traffic between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, including Internet traffic.
According to Hong Kong telecommunications company HGC Global Communications, cables from four major telecommunications networks were “cut,” causing “significant” disruption to communications networks in the Middle East.
HGC estimates that 25% of traffic between Asia and Europe and the Middle East will be affected, it said in a statement on Monday.
The company said it is rerouting traffic to minimize disruption to customers and is also “expanding support to affected businesses.”
HGC did not say how the cables were damaged or who was responsible.
Undersea cables are the invisible force that powers the Internet. Many of these have been funded in recent years by internet giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook parent company Meta. Damage to these underwater networks can lead to widespread internet outages, as happened after the 2006 Taiwan earthquake.
The destruction of cables in the Red Sea came weeks after Yemen's official government warned of the possibility that Houthi rebels would target the cables. The Iran-backed militants have already disrupted global supply chains by attacking merchant ships in the crucial waterway.
Reports from Israel's Globes news agency last week suggested that the Houthis were behind the damage to the cables. Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi denied the allegations. “We have no intention of targeting submarine cables that provide internet to countries in the region,” he said.
The Yemeni government has since blamed British and US military units operating in the region for the damage, according to a report by the country's state news agency on Saturday. CNN has reached out to the U.K. and U.S. governments for comment but was not immediately able to contact the Yemeni government.
In a statement last week, the Yemeni government stressed the importance of protecting submarine cables and said it was “also interested in providing all necessary facilities to repair and maintain such submarine cables.”
The affected networks also include Asia-Africa-Europe 1, a 25,000-kilometer (15,534-mile) cable system that connects Southeast Asia to Europe via Egypt. The Europe India Gateway (EIG) was also damaged.
EIG connects Europe, the Middle East and India and counts Vodafone as a major investor. Vodafone, a major mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, declined to comment.
The company says on its website that it can send Internet traffic to 100 countries over around 80 undersea cable systems.
Most major telecommunications companies rely on multiple submarine cable systems that allow them to reroute data traffic in the event of an outage to ensure uninterrupted service.
Wayne Chang in Taipei, Celine Alkhaldi in Abu Dhabi, Alex Stambaugh in Hong Kong and Diksha Madhok in New Delhi contributed reporting.