The UN calls on the Taliban to restore the Internet, access to telecommunications through Afghanistan

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban on Tuesday to restore access to Internet and telecommunications across the country, claiming that the power failure imposed by the government in Kabul has left the country almost entirely cut in the outside world.

The breakdown, reported the day before, was the first closure at the country’s scale since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and were part of their repression professed against immorality. Earlier this month, several provinces lost their fiber optics links after the Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada published a decree prohibiting service to prevent immorality.

The disruption threatened economic stability and has deepened one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, said the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan.

He warned that the power failure paralyzing banking and financial systems, insulating women and girls, limiting access to medical care and funding and disrupting aviation.

The UN said that these restrictions are more freedom of expression and the right to information. He noted that telecommunications are also crucial during disasters – Afghanistan recently underwent major earthquakes in the East and has difficulty forced mass yields of neighboring countries.

The United Nations mission said that the Internet has spread since it was imposed by the Taliban for the first time on September 16 and became country across the country on Monday. The mission said it would continue to support Afghanistan de facto authorities to restore access “to support from the Afghan people”.

Pakistan diplomatic missions have made alternative communication arrangements, including the use of satellite phones, according to an Islamabad official. He spoke under the cover of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media.

Southern Asia analyst Michael Kugelman described the country’s scale as one of the “most extreme and draconian measures” that the Taliban had taken since their return to power.

“And that amplifies, in the most stardy way possible, but certainly not for the first time, that the group did not become more ideologically moderate than when it was in control in the 1990s,” he told the Associated Press.

Connectivity cut into phases

In the past, the Taliban has expressed their concern about online pornography, and the authorities have reduced fiber optics with certain provinces in recent weeks, those responsible for morality problems.

Internet connectivity in Afghanistan was in flat plates around the bar of a percentage, said Netblocks, an international organization for internet access monitoring.

Connectivity was reduced to phases on Monday, the last step affecting telephone services, which share the infrastructure with the Internet, said Netblocks in an email in Reuters.

Private Channel Tolo News, who warned viewers of a disturbance of his services, said that the authorities had established a one -week deadline for the closure of 3G and 4G Internet services for mobile phones, leaving only the old standard 2G.

Cloudflare Radar, a global Internet traffic instructor, said Kabul, the capital, had suffered the strongest drop in Internet connectivity, followed by the western city of Herat and Kandahar in the South.

The restrictions ordered by the Taliban management, based in Kandahar, increased harder and harder.

This month, the authorities prevented women from working for the United Nations from entering their offices. Previously, women have been prohibited from many employment lines and girls to attend high school.