Khaberni - Internet and communication services have resumed working in Afghanistan, today, Wednesday, after a stoppage lasting 48 hours, which led to a wide disruption of daily life in the country.
Citizens in the capital Kabul and the provinces of Khost, Kandahar, Herat, Nangarhar, Jowzjan, Badghis, and Nimroz reported that the fiber optic internet service and communication networks became functional again, following the reactivation of a government network in the city of Kandahar, according to Al Jazeera.
Internet and mobile phone services were cut off across Afghanistan on Tuesday, with no comment from the authorities.
Earlier, the Taliban-led Afghan government expressed concern about pornographic websites and had cut off fiber optic links in some provinces in recent weeks for "moral reasons".
The UN mission in Kabul has urged the Afghan government to restore internet and communication services, saying that isolating Afghanistan from the outside world could cause significant harm to the people "by threatening economic stability and exacerbating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world".
The communications outage halted operations at banks, customs, and the foreign exchange market in "Sarai Shahzada" in the capital, as well as causing cancellations and delays of many flights, which observers considered unprecedented in terms of its duration and economic impact, and also negatively affected hospitals that were unable to access patient records.
Despite the service's return, neither the Ministry of Communications nor Afghan telecommunications companies provided an official explanation for the interruption, but international reports quoted the government as saying the reason was due to the deterioration of the fiber optic network and the need for its replacement, while human rights organizations linked the matter to political decisions aimed at limiting what the authorities consider "immoral behavior" online.
The outage caused widespread dissatisfaction among citizens who rely on the internet for their business transactions, educational endeavors, and communication with the outside world, amid calls for the Afghan government to ensure the stability of services and not to repeat such crises.
It is noteworthy that this is the first time that communications have been cut off in Afghanistan since 2021.
