Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access across parts of Asia and the Middle East on Sunday, with Pakistan among the affected countries
Microsoft announced that the Middle East “may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea,” though traffic not moving through the region remains unimpacted .
NetBlocks, a watchdog organization monitoring global internet access, reported that “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries,” specifically naming Pakistan and India .
The disruption was attributed to failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia .
There has been concern about cables being targeted in Yemen’s Houthi rebels’ Red Sea campaign, which they describe as pressure on Israel to end its Gaza war, though the Houthis have denied attacking the lines previously .
From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted over 100 ships with missiles and drones, sinking four vessels and killing at least eight mariners .
