A nationwide internet outage in Afghanistan entered a third day on Wednesday, deepening a sense of dread and uncertainty for millions of Afghans who were already feeling isolated under the four-year-old government that rules the country.
It has been nearly impossible for ordinary Afghans to communicate with each other or the outside world since the blackout started on Monday evening, according to multiple internet watchdogs, including NetBlocks. Banking services have all but stopped, planes have been grounded and U.N. agencies — some of the last international organizations left operating in Afghanistan — have said it has become nearly impossible to distribute aid.
The Afghan government, led by the Taliban since 2021, did not respond to requests for comment. One diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the restrictions, said it was understood that Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, had ordered the blackout to prevent the diffusion of “vice.” The official, as well as an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, said they had heard that the blackout would continue “until further notice.”
The government under the Taliban has increasingly isolated Afghanistan since returning to power after the U.S. backed government fell. It has banned girls’ education beyond sixth grade and enforced broad restrictions on individual freedoms and communications on religious grounds.
A nationwide outage impacting all telecommunications for multiple days is rare, even in nations with authoritarian governments. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria enacted a nearly nationwide one at the start of the Syrian revolution in 2012, for example. But most governments tend to limit blackouts to specific regions and for limited periods of time.
Cash transfers and aid deliveries to vulnerable communities outside Kabul, the Afghan capital, have been virtually halted because no flights have been able to depart for two days, according to a U.N. official in Kabul who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns. U.N. staff in Kabul have been unable to contact colleagues in other regions of Afghanistan, including Afghan women who have been prevented from entering U.N. compounds, the official said.
Communications with U.N. offices in Afghan cities such as Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat have been limited to satellite phones inside U.N. compounds, the official said. Aid workers have been responding to the aftermath of a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed more than 1,400 people in late August, as well as the influx of more than a million Afghan refugees over the western border from Iran.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called on the Taliban to restore internet and telecommunications immediately, in light of the country’s battered economy and ongoing humanitarian crises.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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