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London
CNN
—
Damage to undersea cables in the Red Sea has disrupted global telecommunications networks, forcing internet providers to reroute as much as a quarter of their traffic between Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Cables belonging to four major telecommunications networks have been “cut”, causing “significant” disruption to telecommunications networks in the Middle East, Hong Kong-based telecommunications company HGC Global Communications said.
HGC said in a statement on Monday that it estimates 25% of traffic between Asia and Europe and the Middle East is affected.
The company said it would reroute traffic to minimize disruption to customers and “extend assistance to affected businesses.”
HGC did not say how the cable was damaged or who was responsible.
The destruction came weeks after Yemen’s official government warned of a possible cable attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The Houthis have already attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea, disrupting global supply chains.
A report in Israeli news outlet Globes last week suggested that the Houthis were behind the damage to the cable.Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi He denied the charges. “We have no intention of targeting the undersea cables that provide internet to countries in the region,” he said.
Among the affected networks is the Europe-India Gateway, which spans 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) between Europe, the Middle East and India. The Asia-Africa-Europe cable system, a 25,000-kilometre cable system connecting Southeast Asia and Europe via Egypt, was also damaged.
Wayne Cheung in Taipei, Celine Alhardi in Abu Dhabi and Alex Stambaugh in Hong Kong contributed reporting.
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