Internet access has been restored across parts of Afghanistan this Wednesday, ending a two-day nationwide shutdown that brought the economy to a standstill, grounded flights, and fueled rampant speculation about its cause.
The complete internet outage, combined with a suspension of cellphone services, intensified the fear and uncertainty felt by millions of Afghans already grappling with severe restrictions on individual freedoms imposed by the Taliban government.
The lack of official communication from Taliban leaders and the government’s claims of being unable to explain both the shutdown and its sudden reversal left many confused and angry.
“I want the government to make it clear: Why is the internet cut off? And how long will it last?” asked Aqa Gul Panjshiri, a trader dealing in food items, care products, and cigarettes, speaking before services resumed on Wednesday.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, and his deputy, Hamdullah Fitrat, did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
“I still don’t have the reason for the internet cutoff,” stated Inayatullah Alokozay, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Telecommunications, on Wednesday evening.
While the exact reason for the shutdown remained officially undisclosed, its origin was reportedly clear, according to an international diplomatic assessment verified by The New York Times, and accounts from three former and current foreign officials in the region. They attributed the outage to a new directive from Afghanistan’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada.
This nationwide shutdown followed just weeks after Mr. Akhundzada had previously ordered a partial internet crackdown affecting roughly half of the country’s 34 provinces in mid-September.
Unlike earlier restrictions where mobile internet was still accessible, all forms of telecommunications abruptly went offline shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday. This suggested a deliberate and coordinated effort to isolate the country, according to an Afghan telecommunications engineer who, to avoid retaliation, spoke anonymously about his past work on national technology infrastructure before the Taliban’s return to power.
Kabul, a city of six million, fell into an unsettling quiet for two days. Most flights were canceled, banks closed, preventing people from accessing their salaries or receiving crucial remittances from relatives abroad—a vital lifeline for Afghanistan’s struggling economy.
Hundreds of thousands of girls, dependent on online learning due to the Taliban’s ban on schooling beyond sixth grade, found themselves cut off from their education and the wider world.
Residents and foreign diplomats agreed that, despite all the restrictions imposed by the Taliban in recent years, none had matched the extensive scale of this countrywide internet blackout.
Historically, the Taliban had limited their actions to brief, localized shutdowns, including in the capital, Kabul, shortly after they seized power to suppress protests. They had also restricted access to certain platforms, such as TikTok, and prevented content creators from uploading videos to YouTube.
This latest crackdown evokes memories of the Taliban’s initial period in power from 1996 to 2001, when internet use was completely banned. However, today’s Afghanistan is a vastly different landscape, with smartphone adoption surging due to expanded 4G networks. Countless Afghans now rely daily on social media platforms, mobile money applications, and other online services.
The shutdown profoundly affected Afghans both within and outside the country, as well as business owners striving to sustain Afghanistan’s fragile economy.
Mr. Panjshiri, the trader, mentioned he couldn’t track a container worth $150,000 or receive payments from clients needed to pay his 15 employees.
“After the takeover I trusted the government and I didn’t take my investment out of the country,” he recalled, “but now everything is confusing and I can’t make a decision.”
Senior foreign officials and diplomats stationed in the region condemned the internet shutdown as reckless. Humanitarian workers reported significant disruptions to their operations, hindering their response to the aftermath of a recent earthquake that killed over 2,200 people, and their efforts to assist more than 2.7 million Afghans who have returned from neighboring Iran and Pakistan this year.
One senior humanitarian officer with an international organization stated that the outage made it impossible to track and ensure the safety of field workers. According to the United Nations, half of Afghanistan’s 43 million people require humanitarian assistance.
For some Afghans, the internet blackout exacerbated already critical situations.
Jawad Mohammadi, a 37-year-old resident of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, had traveled to Kabul with his brother, who was suffering from severe kidney stones and urgently required hospitalization. Doctors recommended immediate surgery, but Mr. Mohammadi struggled to secure funds from relatives.
“The hospital refuses to proceed with the operation unless we pay in advance,” he explained while the internet remained down.
Just as abruptly as it ceased, service resumed nationwide two days later, with no official announcement.
In Kabul, the city streets filled with the sounds of phone calls and notification pings as night fell, and residents reconnected with friends and family. Taliban government workers emerged from their offices, casually sitting on the grass, catching up on lost time on WhatsApp, the group’s preferred communication platform.
Mr. Mohammadi, whose brother was hospitalized, confirmed he was able to reach his family. “They will send the money tomorrow,” he said.