Commercial shipping likely cut Red Sea cables that disrupted internet access, experts say

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A ship likely cut cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, experts said Tuesday, showing the lines’ vulnerability over a year after another incident severed them.

The International Cable Protection Committee told The Associated Press that 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern mouth of the Red Sea that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.

Over the weekend, authorities in multiple countries identified the cables affected as the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4, the India-Middle East-Western Europe and the FALCON GCX cables. On Tuesday, that list expanded to include the Europe India Gateway cable as well, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the firm Kentik.

Initial reporting suggested the cut happened off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, something authorities in the kingdom have not acknowledged, nor have the companies managing the cables.

“Early independent analysis indicates that the probable cause of damage is commercial shipping activity in the region,” John Wrottesley, the committee’s operations manager, told the AP. “Damage to submarine cables from dragged anchors account for approximately 30% of incidents each year representing around 60 faults.”

Madory also told the AP that the working assumption was a commercial vessel dropped its anchor and dragged it across the four cables, severing the connections. Cabling in the Red Sea can be at a shallow depth, making it easier for an anchor drag to affect them.

Undersea cables are one of the backbones of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables. Typically, internet service providers have multiple access points and reroute traffic if one fails.

However, rerouting traffic can cause latency, or lag, for internet users. Madory said it appeared at least 10 nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East had been affected by the cable cut. Among those nations were India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

“Nobody’s completely offline, but each provider has lost a subset of their international transit,” Madory said. “So if you imagine this is like an equivalent to plumbing and you lose some volume of water coming down the pipes … and now you just have less volumes to carry the traffic.”

Cable security also has been a concern amid attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables. Several later were cut, possibly by a ship attacked by the Houthis dragging its anchor, but the rebels denied being responsible.