A Critical Chokepoint Severed
In early September 2025, internet connectivity suffered a notable blow when multiple submarine cables traversing the Red Sea—connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe—were severed. Experts now suggest that the damage likely stemmed from a ship’s anchor dragging across shallow sea cables. The fallout was immediate, with countries like India, Pakistan, the UAE, and others in the region reporting significant internet slowdowns and increased latency.
2. What Happened? The Anatomy of the Incident
a. Scope and Severity
- The International Cable Protection Committee highlighted that around 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a maritime chokepoint at the southern end of the Red Sea, separating the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa.
- Initial reports identified three affected systems: South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4), India–Middle East–Western Europe (IMEWE), and FALCON GCX. Later, the Europe India Gateway cable was also reported to be damaged.
b. Likely Cause: Anchor-Drag Incident
- John Wrottesley, operations manager at the International Cable Protection Committee, noted that anchor drag by commercial shipping accounts for approximately 30% of undersea cable incidents each year.
- Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, emphasized that in this case, “the working assumption was a commercial vessel dropped its anchor and dragged it across the cables”—a plausible scenario, given the relatively shallow depths in the region.
c. Geographic Context
- Reports suggest the damage occurred off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia—a region through which key cables pass. Neither Saudi authorities nor cable operators have publicly confirmed the location .
3. Ripple Effects: Disruptions Across Internet Infrastructure
a. Affected Regions and Providers
- Internet users in Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa experienced noticeable service degradations, including slow speeds and increased latency.
- In the UAE, subscribers of major telecom providers Etisalat and Du reported lagging connections.
b. Impact on Cloud Services
- Microsoft Azure — one of the world’s largest cloud platforms — issued status alerts confirming increased latency for users whose traffic typically traverses the Middle East.
- Azure traffic was rerouted via longer alternative paths, which helped maintain connectivity but introduced delays — effects expected to linger as repair resources are limited and the Red Sea remains geopolitically sensitive.
c. Broader Internet Effects
- According to NetBlocks, multiple countries experienced degraded internet performance due to cable failures near Jeddah.
- The disruption underscored how fragile global connectivity is — rooted in a network of undersea cables that, when breached, can impact everything from cloud infrastructure and gaming platforms to everyday browsing and business communications.
4. Technical and Strategic Significance of Undersea Cables
a. Submarine Cables as the Internet’s Backbone
- Over 95–99% of global internet traffic — especially high-speed data links between continents — depends on submarine fiber-optic cables.
- The cables affected (SEA-ME-WE 4, IMEWE, FALCON GCX, Europe India Gateway) are major conduits for Asia–Europe and Asia–Middle East connectivity.
b. Strategic Vulnerability of the Red Sea Corridor
- The Red Sea, particularly the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is a highly trafficked and narrow maritime corridor, making cables there susceptible to physical damage, be it accidental or malicious.
- The region’s geopolitical volatility further amplifies risk — including threats of sabotage, regional conflict, militant activity, and constrained repair operations.
5. Precedents: Similar Cable Disruptions
a. February 2024 Red Sea Incident
- A previous disruption in February 2024 damaged cables including AAE-1, SEACOM, and EIG, impacting around 25% of internet traffic between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
- One theory pointed to a vessel attacked by Houthi rebels whose anchor dragging may have caused the cut—though repairs were delayed by Yemen’s complex political environment.
b. 2008 Middle East Cable Cuts
- In early 2008, multiple undersea cables (e.g. SEA-ME-WE 4, FALCON) were cut, disrupting internet services in Egypt, Pakistan, and beyond. Anchor damage was a suspected cause in several cases.
- These historical incidents underline that anchor collisions remain a consistent risk for submarine cable integrity.
c. State-Sponsored Risks
- A 2025 report from Recorded Future warns of rising state-backed threats to undersea cables — citing Russia and China — along with prior incidents in the Red Sea, Baltic, and off West Africa as signs of a growing geopolitical trend.
6. Response and Repair Outlook
a. Network Mitigation Efforts
- Azure and ISPs quickly reconfigured routing to circumvent damaged cables, sustaining service but with increased latency.
- Providers globally rely on redundant paths, yet these backups are often longer and less efficient, making them poor substitutes for primary routes.
b. Cable Repair Challenges
- Repair operations for submarine cables involve specialized vessels, accurate cable-location systems, and appropriate maritime clearance — all factors that complicate and delay fixes, especially in sensitive zones like the Red Sea.
- Evidence from past disruptions suggests repairs can stretch into weeks, depending on the location, weather, logistics, and regional instability.
7. Strategic Takeaways & Future Imperatives
a. Infrastructure Resilience
- The incident shines a light on the fragility of global internet infrastructure when anchored (pun intended) on a few strategic cables.
- Sectors reliant on cloud computing, real-time applications, or cross-continent operations must reinforce multi-path redundancy and adaptive routing strategies.
b. Policy and Protection Measures
- There’s a growing call for international coordination on submarine cable protection — from increased maritime regulations, better navigational mapping, to surveillance around high-risk zones.
- Reports also suggest the need for defensive deployment, such as naval presence or protective monitoring around key cable corridors, especially amid rising geopolitical tensions.
c. Investment in Alternative Technologies
- Long-term strategies might explore satellite internet, terrestrial overland links, or even novel approaches like mesh networks; however, current capacities and latency levels generally lag behind fiber performance.
- Hybrid approaches, combining satellite and terrestrial backups with undersea redundancy, may offer a stronger solution.
