'We are blind without phones and internet': Taliban cut Afghanistan's telecoms to combat vice

Government says 8,000 to 9,000 communication towers shut down 'until further notice'

Kabul on Monday night following the nationwide telecoms blackout. AFP

Afghanistan faced a second day without internet and mobile phone services on Tuesday, after the ruling Taliban cut the country's fibre-optic network.

Officials began disconnecting internet to some provinces earlier this month on the orders of supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, reportedly to prevent "vice".

On Monday night, mobile phone signal and internet service gradually weakened nationwide until connectivity was less than one per cent of ordinary levels, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks.

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It is the first time since the Taliban took power in an insurgency in 2021 and imposed their strict interpretation of Sharia that communications have been shut down.

"We are blind without phones and internet," said shopkeeper Najibullah, 42, in Kabul. "All our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It's like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen."

A bird market in old Kabul. Businesspeople say they are 'blind without phones and internet'. EPA

A government official told AFP that "8,000 to 9,000 telecommunications pillars" would be shut down and the blackout would last "until further notice".

"There isn't any other way or system to communicate ... the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The Taliban's supreme leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials earlier this month about the economic fallout and ordered authorities to press ahead with a nationwide ban.

A UN source told AFP that its "operations are severely impacted, falling back to radio communications and limited satellite links".

Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre-optic lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.

In recent weeks, internet connections had been extremely slow or intermittent.

Attaullah Zaid, a spokesman for the province of Balkh, had said on September 16 that the ban had come on the orders of the supreme leader. "This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs," he wrote on social media.

Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, said the blackout "appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service".

"Because of the shutdown, I'm totally disconnected with my family in Kabul," said a 40-year-old Afghan living in Oman. "I don't know what's happening, I'm really worried."

Only last year Kabul had been touting Afghanistan's 9,350km fibre-optic network - largely built by former US-backed governments - as a "priority" to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.