Damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea. Attack feared, but Houthis deny

First the attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea, now (perhaps) the sabotage of submarine cables that transmit data and hold up the global Internet infrastructure. The reprisals of the Houthi militiamen, a pro-Iranian Yemeni armed group, are intensifying and may have found new targets, although the militiamen have denied this hypothesis.

Let's start from the beginning: according to various media in the area, at least four submarine cables have been damaged in the Red Sea: the AAE-1 cable (Asia-Africa-Europe 1, 25 thousand kilometres long, from south-east Asia to Europe; the Seacom cable (a 17 thousand kilometre cable connecting South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Djibouti, France and India); the 15 thousand kilometre Europe India Gateway (Eig) cable. At least for one of these cables there is official confirmation of damage: it is the Seacom cable.

The real point, however, is another: it is not clear whether the damage is due to sabotage or to more trivial maritime accidents (perhaps caused by fishing equipment such as trawl nets or anchors dragged along the seabed). It has to be said, however, that the second hypothesis seems rather difficult, considering that the construction and laying of cables takes maritime traffic and these eventualities into account.

As mentioned, the only real confirmation comes from Seacom, the South African company that controls one of the compromised cables. The company detected a fault last Saturday, confirmed Chief Digital Officer, Prenesh Padayachee, in an interview with Bloomberg. He estimated that the problem is in waters between 150 and 170 metres deep, in an area where Iranian-backed Houthi fighters have targeted ships with drones and missiles. At the moment, however, Seacom is unable to determine whether the cable has been compromised by a Houthi attack or by other factors. Only when the company is able to operate the cable will it be able to establish the cause of the damage. The incident, however, highlights how vulnerable critical submarine infrastructure can be, particularly in shallow waters with many cables. There are some 16 cable systems in the Red Sea, connecting Europe to Asia via Egypt. And if initial reports are confirmed, four of these would have been sabotaged.

Pending further confirmation, the damage to communications would currently be considered significant, but not critical. This is because other cables - as yet unaffected - cross the same area connecting Asia, Africa and Europe. Seacom itself has already redirected traffic onto alternative cables.