In Lebanon, the internet went down in parts of the country because there was no fuel left to operate the infrastructure. The state telecommunications operator Ogero announced on Twitter on Saturday evening that several hubs in the capital Beirut were temporarily shut down because of a lack of diesel – operations could only be resumed when there was a sufficient supply. The company referred to “circumstances beyond our control”.
Last liter of diesel consumed
NetBlocks confirmed in a tweet on Sunday that internet was down in some areas of Beirut. The watchdog organization, which takes care of IT security and Internet monitoring, also quoted the CEO of Ogero with a statement just a few hours before the first outages: The network will soon stop working when the last liter of diesel has been used up. However, on Sunday afternoon, Ogero tweeted that some of the hubs in Beirut had resumed operations.
The comparatively small Mediterranean country has been struggling with a severe economic and financial crisis and an unstable political situation since 2019. Again and again there are power cuts and acute fuel shortages, which the increasingly impoverished population feels directly; only higher earners can try to generate electricity with their own generator on their own initiative. Internet and mobile phone connections have also been failing selectively for years.
In an interview more than six months ago, ogero boss Imad Kreidieh indicated how acute the danger of a large-scale failure like the current one is. In parts of the country there is sometimes electricity for only six hours a day, he told the daily at the time The National. The suppliers’ income often does not cover the electricity procurement costs, which is why the companies involved default on payment. In addition, massive inflation of the national currency, the lira, exacerbates the financial difficulties.
(tw)