Network data from NetBlocks confirm a nation-scale collapse of internet connectivity in Yemen on Friday 21 January 2022 from around 1 a.m. local time. The incident came amid reports of an airstrike on a telecom hub in the port city of Al Hudaydah and continued until early Tuesday morning, with a recorded incident duration of four days.
⚠️ Confirmed: #Yemen is in the midst of a nation-scale Internet blackout following airstrike on telecom building in #Hudaydah; real-time network data show collapse of connectivity on leading provider; incident ongoing 📉 pic.twitter.com/ZM77WdUpwm
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 21, 2022
ℹ️ Confirmed: Internet is being restored in #Yemen after a four-day long nation-scale blackout 📈
Connectivity collapsed after a series of deadly airstrikes. The incident severely limited independent media and human rights monitoring efforts.
📰 Report: https://t.co/571sVb9PdP pic.twitter.com/C5Z2idqlGu
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 24, 2022
Real-time metrics show the loss of connectivity on leading network YemenNet (AS30873) on early Friday morning. It is not known if telecommunication infrastructure was specifically targeted, although visual investigations suggest this may be the case. The resulting information blackout is likely to limit coverage of events on the ground.
Visual reports appeared to corroborate initial reports of a strike. Al Hudaydah is the main landing point for internet connectivity in Yemen, hosting the undersea FALCON and SEA-ME-WE 5 cables that route via the Red Sea.
⚠️ Update: It's now Monday in #Yemen where a near-total Internet blackout has entered its fourth day ⏱
The country fell largely offline after a series of deadly airstrikes, leaving friends and family out of touch 📉
📰 Report: https://t.co/571sVb9PdP pic.twitter.com/4LF3LpWzzQ
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 23, 2022
⚠️ Update: It's now Sunday in #Yemen where Internet has been largely down for more than 48 hours after a series of deadly airstrikes knocked out connectivity.
The blackout continues to hinder human rights monitoring and independent media 📉
📰 Report: https://t.co/571sVb9PdP pic.twitter.com/1YckXRTi6t
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 22, 2022
Work is ongoing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the network disruption.
Further reading:
- Advocacy group: Internet down across Yemen after airstrike – AP
- Airstrikes kill 70 people and knock out internet in Yemen – CNN
- Yemen suffers nationwide internet blackout after coalition air strike – Middle East Eye
- Yemen Suffers Internet Outage Nationwide After Saudi Airstrike on Telecom – Gizmodo
- Dead, Wounded In Air Strike On Yemen Prison – AFP/Barrons
- CPJ monitoring Yemen ‘with concern’ after Saudi airstrikes kill dozens and shut down internet – Committee to Protect Journalists
Methodology
NetBlocks diffscans, which map the IP address space of a country in real time, show internet connectivity levels and corresponding outages. Purposeful internet outages may have a distinct network pattern used by NetBlocks to determine and attribute the root cause of an outage, a process known as attribution which follows detection and classification stages.
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