Afghanistan entered a second day of a near-total communications blackout after Taliban authorities cut internet and mobile telephone services nationwide. Connectivity fell to less than 1% of ordinary levels on Monday night, according to internet-monitoring group NetBlocks, and both internet and phone services remained down on Tuesday.
The shutdown followed restrictions introduced gradually earlier in September. High-speed connections were cut in several provinces in mid-September under an order attributed to Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. A provincial spokesperson in Balkh, Attaullah Zaid, said on September 16 that the measure was intended to prevent vice and that alternatives would be introduced to meet communications needs. Restrictions were also reported in Badakhshan, Takhar, Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Uruzgan.
Telephone networks were affected because many calls travel over the same fibre-optic infrastructure used for internet traffic. Shortly before the national interruption, an unnamed government official warned that the fibre network and mobile service would be switched off. The official said 8,000 to 9,000 telecommunications towers would be shut down until further notice and predicted consequences for banking, customs and other activity. The Taliban administration did not immediately provide a public explanation for the countrywide blackout.
The disruption quickly affected everyday commerce. A Kabul shopkeeper, Najibullah, said deliveries and other business depended on mobile phones and described the market as frozen. United Nations operations were also severely affected, according to a UN source, with staff falling back on radio and limited satellite connections.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan warned that the disconnection threatened economic stability and could intensify an already severe humanitarian crisis. Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said loss of access harmed livelihoods as well as education, healthcare and access to information. Rights groups argued that the authorities were isolating the population, while recent official statements had focused on preventing online pornography and immorality.
Although officials had previously blocked social-media platforms or limited internet access, this was reported as the first nationwide communications shutdown imposed by the Taliban government. The interruption also reversed the direction promoted by Kabul in 2024, when the country's 9,350-kilometre (5,800-mile) fibre-optic network was described as a priority for connecting Afghanistan with the wider world and supporting development. NetBlocks said the observed outage was consistent with an intentional disconnection of service.
The cutoff also demonstrated how closely Afghanistan's mobile, fixed-line, financial and humanitarian activity depended on shared fibre infrastructure. With no restoration date announced, households, businesses and aid organisations across the country faced an open-ended interruption rather than a short, scheduled outage with a defined end.
