PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Afghanistan has been plunged into chaos amid a nationwide internet blackout that has further isolated the Taliban-ruled country, including by cutting off residents’ communication with relatives abroad.
The disruptions began last month when officials in five northern provinces announced an internet ban as part of a crackdown on immorality. It was the first such internet ban since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 with the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
The outage has since spread across Afghanistan, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks, disrupting everything from banking to travel and businesses to aid work in the country of over 40 million people.
A number of news organizations, including NBC News, earlier reported that the Taliban had denied imposing the internet blackout. NBC News cited a report on the Urdu-language website Al-Emarah that quoted spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid as saying it was due to the replacement of old fiber-optic cables.
The Taliban later said he had been misquoted and that internet service had begun to be restored in parts of Afghanistan.
Efforts by NBC News to reach Mujahid directly on Wednesday had been unsuccessful due to the internet disruptions.
According to the Associated Press, the false statement was forwarded to some Pakistani journalists who are members of an official Taliban WhatsApp group by an Afghan user with a name similar to that of the group, though it was not posted in the group itself. The identity of the sender, who has since disappeared, could not be verified.
The same statement was posted on the social media platform X, not by the Taliban but from an account run by a Taliban sympathizer.
A senior Taliban leader in Kabul told NBC News: “We don’t understand what’s happening in the country. Nobody is telling us as majority of the people don’t have access to each other.”
NetBlocks said Monday that a near nationwide telecoms disruption was in effect. Less than two hours later, it announced that Afghanistan was “now in the midst of a total internet blackout.”
Transportation with neighboring Pakistan has been suspended because of the outage, Zia ul Haq Sarhadi, senior vice president of the Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce, told NBC News.
“Transport service and trade between the two countries has been disrupted since Wednesday morning. Hundreds of heavy vehicles loaded with multiple items have been stranded on both sides of the border crossing,” he said.
Flights out of the country have also been canceled, adding to the sense of chaos and isolation.
And the shutdown has distressed millions of people from Afghanistan who now live outside the country, with many unable to contact their loved ones.
Indiana resident Sofia Ramyar, 33, is one of them.
Ramyar said she has not been able to contact her family, some of whom live in the capital, Kabul.
“The blackout has created a deep sense of isolation and has further silenced those already struggling to be heard,” Ramyar told NBC News. “This blackout has fully cut off the country from the digital world in a way we have never seen before.”
Ramyar left Afghanistan for the United States in 2020. She is an adviser to Afghans for Progressive Thinking, a youth-led nonprofit group that focuses on advancing women’s rights and educational opportunities for girls.
She said the blackout has affected her ability to serve those women, adding that her work “relies heavily” on online access and that the situation in Afghanistan continues to be “unpredictable.”
“Their safety is always a concern,” she said.
Naseer Kawoshger, 29, who left Afghanistan in 2022 and is now a cashier at a grocery store in Chicago, said he has also been unable to speak with his family in Kabul.
“When I sent a message to my sister, my brother, there was only one tick, and I saw that the message wasn’t being sent,” Kawoshger said. “I don’t know what happened to my country, what happened to my family.”
Aid officials have warned the blackout is hampering their operations in the country, which has been battered by a series of economic and humanitarian crises.
The hard-line Islamist regime, which has faced global criticism for its treatment of women, has recently sought better ties with Washington.
The United Nations urged Taliban authorities in a statement Tuesday “to immediately and fully restore nationwide Internet and telecommunications access.”
“Reliable communications are essential for our ability to operate, to deliver life-saving assistance, and to coordinate with partners,” Save the Children said in a statement Wednesday.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar, and Jay Ganglani from Hong Kong.
