Microsoft Warns of Subsea Cable Cuts Disrupting Azure Services
On Saturday, September 6th, 2025, Microsoft issued an alert following the detection of multiple cuts affecting vital subsea telecommunication cables in the Red Sea. This incident has caused disruptions to its Azure cloud services and highlighted the vulnerability of the global internet infrastructure, with potential implications for African businesses reliant on these services.
Red Sea Cable Disruptions Impact Global Connectivity
According to updates posted on the official Microsoft Azure status page, the cable cuts were reported starting at 05:45 UTC. The affected cables included two strategically important lines: SMW4 (South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4) and IMEWE (India–Middle East–Western Europe), located off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Microsoft reported that users experienced increased latency and slower performance, particularly on connections between Asia and Europe. Reports suggest that up to 17% of global internet traffic was affected by these disruptions, potentially impacting data transfer speeds and access to cloud-based resources for African users. To mitigate the impact, Microsoft engineers have implemented traffic rerouting strategies.
The incident underscores the critical importance of resilient internet infrastructure, especially for regions like Africa that are increasingly dependent on cloud services and international data connectivity for economic growth and digital transformation. The vulnerability of subsea cables necessitates investment in diverse routing options and enhanced monitoring systems to minimize the impact of future disruptions on global communication networks.
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