The United Nations has called on Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to immediately restore internet and telecommunications in the country, 24 hours after a nationwide blackout was imposed.
The government began shutting down high-speed internet connections to some provinces earlier this month to prevent "vice", on the orders of shadowy supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Mobile phone signal and internet service weakened on Monday night until connectivity was less than one percent of ordinary levels.
Afghans are unable to contact each other, online businesses and the banking systems have frozen, and diaspoara abroad cannot send crucial remittances to family.
All flights were cancelled at Kabul airport today, AFP journalists saw.
"The cut in access has left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world, and risks inflicting significant harm on the Afghan people, including by threatening economic stability and exacerbating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises," the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.
"The current blackout also constitutes a further restriction on access to information and freedom of expression in Afghanistan," it added.
It is the first time since the Taliban government won their insurgency in 2021 and imposed a strict version of Islamic law that communications have been shut down in the country.
"We are blind without phones and internet," said 42-year-old shopkeeper Najibullah in Kabul.
"All our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It's like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen."
The telecommunications ministry today refused to let journalists enter the building in Kabul.
Minutes before the shutdown on Monday evening, a government official warned AFP that the fibre optic network would be cut, and affect mobile phone services.
"Eight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars" would be shut down, he said, adding that the blackout would last "until further notice".
"There isn't any other way or system to communicate... the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected," said the official, who asked not to be named.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Radio communications
Diplomatic sources told AFP today that mobile networks were mostly shut down.
A UN source meanwhile said "operations are severely impacted, falling back to radio communications and limited satellite links".
Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre optic lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.
Over the past weeks, internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent.
On 16 September, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said the ban had come from the Taliban leader's orders.
"This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs," he wrote on social media.
At the time, AFP correspondents reported the same restrictions in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Uruzgan in the south.
The Taliban leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials this month about the economic fallout of cutting the internet and ordered authorities to press ahead with a nationwide ban.
Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, said the blackout "appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service".
Today, it said connectivity had flatlined below one percent, with no restoration of service observed.
In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-kilometre fibre optic network - largely built by former US-backed governments - as a "priority" to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.
