Unclear whether Houthi terrorists cut Seacom cable — report

Three telecommunications cables under the Red Sea have experienced breaks as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue attacks in the region.

The Associated Press reported that it is unclear what caused the cable breaks, but that there has been concern that the terrorists have started targeting Internet infrastructure in their attack.

Seacom, one of the major subsea cables serving South Africa, revealed last week that it had been experiencing a service outage in the Red Sea region since Saturday, 24 February 2024.

It said the disruption is only on the segment of cable running from Mombasa, Kenya, to Zafarana, Egypt.

Seacom said the geopolitical sensitivity and ongoing tensions in the region make it a challenging environment for maintenance and repair operations.

“At this time, Seacom is unable to confirm the cause of the disruption but is working with its cable repair partner to assess the feasibility of the repair in the region,” it said.

“Seacom still continues to carry traffic on its own cable between Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa for both transmission and IP services.”

It added that it rerouted all other IP-based services destined for Europe and other regions via Seacom’s alternative routes on the Equiano, PEACE, and WACS cable systems.

Seacom said this would ensure “clients remain operational with some latency in their Internet communications”.

The company had issued a precautionary warning earlier in February, stating that any disruptions requiring repairs to the cable system could be extended due to the instability in the region.

Seacom said it was working to establish restoration timelines, which will be communicated to clients.

In addition to the Seacom/TGN-Gulf cable, two other cables in the Red Sea have experienced outages: Asia-Africa-Europe 1 and the Europe India Gateway.

Seacom reportedly told AP that its initial testing indicates the affected segment lies within Yemeni maritime jurisdictions in the Southern Red Sea.

Articles citing Israeli news outlet Globes, including the Jerusalem Post, claimed that the publication had reported definitively that the Houthis had attacked the cables.

However, while the Globes report does draw a strong link between the cable breaks and Houthi activity in the region, the article only noted that the terrorists had threatened to target the cables last year.

The Register also highlighted this fact in its coverage of the attack.

The Houthis have officially denied responsibility for the damage to the cables.

They blamed British and U.S. military operations for the disruptions. However, AP reported that they didn’t offer evidence to support the allegation.