How Cable Damage Will Affect the World

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It is worth noting that American media, unlike Israeli ones, have given almost no coverage to the damage to the cables, and the US Central Command (CENTCOM) is allegedly conducting an analysis of what happened. However, damage to communication lines is not necessarily the result of sabotage. According to the International Cable Protection Committee, in the vast majority of cases, damage is caused by fishing equipment, trawlers or anchors dragging along the bottom. Analysts from the Gulf Security Forum stated at the end of January that the Houthis are "technologically backward" to carry out such an operation. However, they emphasized that in some places the cables run at shallow depths, up to 100 meters, and high-tech means are not needed to detonate them.

Yemen is a highly bolivia whatsapp number database fragmented state with many regional and sectarian differences. One of the main divisions since the early 2000s has been between the central government and representatives of Ansar Allah. The Houthis advance the interests of the Zaydi Shiite group, which has opposed the central government's attempts to Islamize the region on the basis of Sunni Islam.

In addition to the government and the Houthis, the main actors in the Yemeni arena also include the Southern Transitional Council (STC). It represents the interests of the population of southern Yemen, who are dissatisfied with the conditions under which the unification of South and North Yemen took place in 1990.


The cables in question are AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN. The EIG (European India Gateway) cable connects southern Europe with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Djibouti and India. The shares of this company are owned by a consortium that includes such telecommunications giants as AT&T and Verizon. TGN Atlantic is owned by the Indian company Tata Communications. The Seacom cable provides a connection between Europe, Africa, India and South Africa. Of particular interest is the AAE-1 cable, which connects Southeast Asia with Europe via Egypt and also links China with the West via countries belonging to the Sino-Iranian axis, including Pakistan and Qatar.

As Globes notes, the damage caused significant disruptions in internet communications between Europe and Asia. Users in the Persian Gulf and India suffered the most. At least, the South African company Seacom confirmed the fact of damage to the cable between Kenya and Egypt, although internet traffic was quickly rerouted to other lines. The malfunction was recorded in the range of Houthi missiles and drones, but the company's management says it is too early to talk about sabotage.

Communications monitoring company NetBlocks confirmed that the internet connection was partially disrupted in Djibouti. However, the publication believes that the damage is not critical, since other cables connecting three continents - Asia, Africa and Europe - pass through the same region. According to available data, there are 16 of them. Together, they provide between 17% and 20% of the world's internet traffic.

This node is part of one of the three main routes of global underwater communication cables that connect continents and essentially serve as the basis of the Internet, said Leonid Konik, CEO and editor-in-chief of the ComNews group of companies. It is a link between Europe and Asia, passing along the bottom of the Indian Ocean with an exit to Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan on the right, and to the left through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to Europe. This is the second most important route after the Pacific, but larger than the transatlantic.

— The failures may be felt by the countries that are mainly fed by these cables. For example, Iran, Iraq, and to a large extent India. But at the level of the world and especially Europe and all of Asia, nothing will happen, — the expert said. — As soon as a blockage is felt in one direction of the cables, the traffic is instantly transferred to other directions in fractions of a millisecond. Even if all the cables at the bottom of the Red Sea are destroyed, the traffic will be transferred to the Pacific and transatlantic routes. A separate question is what will happen to the prices, because there is quite dynamic pricing there, and the cost of passing traffic may increase, — the expert concluded.