"The outage of the Yemen Mobile network in the central regions of Abyan has disrupted my work and made me unable to support my family due to my job being internet-dependent." With these poignant words, the journalist Ali Abdulaziz Al Najdi embodies his struggle with the interruption of the Yemen Mobile network and internet in his village of "Al Najda" and the surrounding areas of central Abyan.
Ali, who works as a journalist for a newspaper in Aden, shared his recurring struggles with the Yemen Mobile network and its associated Wi-Fi internet connection when we met him at a local café in the city of Lawdar, the largest directorate in central Abyan. He expressed to "Khuyut": "The frequent interruption of the network in the central regions of Abyan has completely halted my work. I cannot function without a stable internet connection, as publishing journalistic materials in the newspaper requires internet access." He expressed his astonishment at the concerning silence observed by the relevant authorities in the province or the government regarding this dilemma.
Moreover, Ali's demeanor reflects profound sadness due to the lack of basic services in these areas, including the internet, which has become a universally accessible and affordable commodity, except in these devastated regions, as he describes.
After a brief silence, he resumed speaking, saying, "Imagine that we no longer even remember having the Yemen Mobile network in our areas; this is due to the extreme weakness of its coverage that has persisted over the past few years. The government has become incapable of installing even a single communication tower."
A Continuous Struggle Since 2015
The central region of Abyan has been suffering from poor connectivity and internet service for a long time, especially after the war that the country witnessed in March 2015. The area experiences frequent outages, some lasting for days, with a complete failure from the relevant authorities to address the issue fundamentally or implement effective solutions to prevent such dilemmas.
As a result, these outages lead to the disruption of many people's interests and the cessation of their activities, especially those relying on both communication and internet services. Additionally, the poor quality of mobile phone services exacerbates the situation, witnessing unprecedented degradation, especially with Yemen Mobile's network, which is experiencing a high demand from subscribers but offers limited services due to its inability to cover the remote areas of the region. This has further compounded the difficulty. In my opinion, the communications infrastructure might face a complete collapse if the situation persists without the responsible parties taking the necessary steps to improve the service and address the technical issues associated with it.
“The director of communications stated to "Khuyut": the internet disruptions in the central regions of Abyan and the province as a whole are due to sabotage operations targeting fiber optic cables in Al-Dhale, Qa'tabah, and Khawr Amira Al-Sahil. These incidents persist without cessation, with interruptions recurring shortly after restoration, attributed to hands tampering with and cutting the cables.”
Mohsen Al-Murakhi, a journalist in the Lawdar district, expressed his suffering, saying: "Not a month goes by without an internet outage occurring in the central districts of Abyan, causing all these districts to be cut off from the outside world."
He adds, "The frequent outages have a significant impact on me. As a journalist and a health educator, I have work, news, and reports to submit. I remain incapacitated until the internet is restored, as it often remains disconnected for two or three days at a time. Others, like me, also suffer from the same problem. Every outage or slowdown in the internet causes real disturbance to all internet users in our central region."
In the context of his speech, Al-Murakhi called on the relevant authorities in this regard to swiftly address the ongoing outages, saying: "A rapid solution must be implemented to end these continuous disruptions. The internet problem is not a new one; we, in our regions, have been enduring the internet woes since 2015, and the recurring outages still persist to this day."
Continual Sabotage Operations
In this regard, "Khuyut" obtained an exclusive statement from the General Manager of the Ministry of Communications branch office in Abyan Governorate, Mohammed Ruwais Al-Saqqaf, who confirmed to us during our communication with him that "the internet outages in the central regions of Abyan and the governorate as a whole are due to the sabotage operations targeting fiber optic cables in Al-Dhale, Qa'tabah, and Khawr Amira Al-Sahil towards Taiz." He explained that the sabotage operations in these areas persist without cessation, with interruptions recurring shortly after restoration, attributed to hands tampering with and cutting the fiber optic cables.
In his statement to "Khuyut," Ruwais pointed out that the telecommunications office is operating at a high pace. He mentioned that two weeks ago, they carried out an expansion in the districts of Lawdar and Mudiyah, as well as from the temporary capital, Aden. He explained that the internet service will improve in the governorate in the coming period following the recent expansion.
For the Sake of One Gigabyte
Rafat Makhsham, a graphic designer, tells "Khuyut": "I work in the field of graphic design, programming, and website design. I own a library in the market of Mudiyah district, and its main work is in print and design. Therefore, my work relies heavily on the continuous availability of electricity and the internet. Unfortunately, these services are unstable, making our work unstable as well. Hardly a month passes without one of them surprising us with an interruption, which often lasts for days and sometimes weeks, as was the case in the last internet outage in the area due to repairs and expansion operations, where the outage lasted almost two weeks."
He adds: "After a week, I seriously considered traveling a very long distance to Aden Governorate because I couldn't send files that were nearly one gigabyte in size."
Rafat concludes further: "We hope for a greater improvement in this service and its development in the region, especially the introduction of 4G internet, following the example of other governorates, so that our work does not halt in the future."
