The United Nations mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban on Tuesday to restore internet and telecommunications access across the country, saying the blackout imposed by the government in Kabul has left the country almost entirely cut off from the outside world.
The outage, reported the previous day, was the first countrywide shutdown since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and was part of their professed crackdown on immorality. Earlier this month, several provinces lost their fibre optic connections after Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning the service to prevent immorality.
The disruption threatened economic stability and deepened one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, said the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
It warned that the blackout is crippling banking and financial systems, isolating women and girls, limiting access to medical care and remittances and disrupting aviation.
The UN said such restrictions further undermine freedom of expression and the right to information. It noted that telecommunications are also crucial during disasters — Afghanistan has recently suffered major earthquakes in the east and is struggling with mass forced returns from neighbouring countries.
The UN mission said the internet outage spread since it was first imposed by the Taliban on Sept. 16 and became countrywide on Monday. The mission said it would continue to press Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to restore access “in support of the Afghan people.”
Pakistan’s diplomatic missions have made alternative communication arrangements, including the use of satellite phones, according to an official in Islamabad. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman described the countrywide shutdown as one of the “most extreme and draconian steps” the Taliban had taken since returning to power.
“And it amplifies, in the starkest possible way, though certainly not for the first time, that the group has not become any more ideologically moderate than when it was in control in the 1990s,” he told The Associated Press.
Connectivity cut in phases
In the past, the Taliban have voiced concern about online pornography, and authorities cut fibre optic links to some provinces in recent weeks, with officials citing morality concerns.
Internet connectivity in Afghanistan was flatlining around the one per cent mark, said NetBlocks, an international internet access monitoring organization.
Connectivity was cut in phases on Monday, with the final stage affecting telephone services, which share infrastructure with the internet, NetBlocks said in an email to Reuters.
Private channel Tolo News, which warned viewers of a disruption to its services, said authorities had set a one-week deadline for the shutdown of 3G and 4G internet services for cellphones, leaving only the older 2G standard active.
Cloudflare Radar, a global internet traffic monitor, said that Kabul, the capital, suffered the sharpest drop in internet connectivity, followed by the western city of Herat and Kandahar in the south.
Strictures ordered by the Taliban leadership, based in Kandahar, have grown increasingly hardline.
This month, authorities stopped women working for the United Nations from entering its offices. Earlier, women were banned from many lines of employment and girls from attending high school.
