A sweeping internet outage across Afghanistan entered its third day on Wednesday, intensifying a pervasive sense of fear and uncertainty for millions of Afghans already feeling profoundly isolated under the four-year rule of the current government.
Since the blackout began Monday evening, it has become virtually impossible for ordinary Afghans to connect with each other or the outside world, as confirmed by various internet monitoring groups, including NetBlocks. Banking services have largely ceased, flights are grounded, and critical aid distribution by UN agencies – among the few international organizations still operating in Afghanistan – has been severely hampered.
The Afghan government, led by the Taliban since 2021, has remained silent regarding the outage. However, one diplomatic official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the situation, indicated that Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, reportedly ordered the blackout to prevent the spread of “vice.” Both this official and an Afghan Foreign Ministry source suggested the internet shutdown would persist “until further notice.”
Since regaining power after the collapse of the U.S.-backed government, the Taliban-led administration has progressively isolated Afghanistan. It has banned girls from education beyond the sixth grade and imposed wide-ranging restrictions on personal freedoms and communications, citing religious grounds.
A multi-day, nationwide telecommunications outage of this magnitude is exceedingly rare, even in countries governed by authoritarian regimes. For instance, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad implemented a near-total blackout at the outset of the Syrian revolution in 2012. Yet, most governments typically confine such shutdowns to specific regions and for limited durations.
Cash transfers and vital aid deliveries to vulnerable communities outside the capital, Kabul, have come to a standstill, with no flights able to depart for two days. A UN official in Kabul, also speaking anonymously due to security concerns, reported that UN staff in the capital cannot contact colleagues in other Afghan regions, including Afghan women who are barred from entering UN compounds.
Communication with UN offices in cities like Jalalabad, Kandahar, and Herat is now restricted to satellite phones within UN compounds. Aid workers have been tirelessly responding to a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan in late August that claimed over 1,400 lives, alongside managing the influx of more than a million Afghan refugees from Iran across the western border.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan publicly urged the Taliban to immediately restore internet and telecommunications services, emphasizing the country’s struggling economy and ongoing humanitarian crises.