More than 17 hours after a nationwide blackout of internet and telecommunications services began, the Taliban have yet to issue a statement.
During the outage, many domestic media outlets have been unable to post updates on social media.
The Taliban’s move to cut internet access has drawn sharp criticism from citizens across the country.
The blackout began last month in Balkh province, where the Taliban initially disconnected fiber-optic services. By Monday, the outage had expanded to 17 provinces. At 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, internet services were shut down nationwide.
Sources confirmed to Amu on Monday that all flights at Kabul International Airport were canceled following the internet cutoff.
Sources said the U.N. and most foreign embassies, which have backup systems, have switched to satellite links, though bandwidth remains severely limited. The U.N. has also resorted to radio communications, they said.
According to the sources, all internet access was cut at 5 p.m. local time Monday. Mobile services — including GSM, 3G and 4G — also went down. Some Etisalat users briefly retained limited connections, and a few Roshan customers reported sporadic service.
