Red Sea Cable Cuts Cause Azure Outage and Global Traffic Disruptions

According to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), a disruption in submarine cables near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has affected multiple Microsoft cloud services and caused significant network latency. The incident occurred on 6 September 2025 at 06:00 UTC, with confirmed damage to several cables, including SMW4, IMEWE, FALCON GCX and the Europe–India Gateway.

The ICPC notes that nearly 15 submarine cables pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and four cables have been confirmed as damaged so far, with investigations continuing. Microsoft swiftly rerouted traffic onto alternative routes, but capacity limits and routing constraints have pushed overall latency higher.

NetBlocks reported reduced speeds and connectivity disruptions across multiple countries, while Cloudflare documented a 20% drop in traffic between Delhi and London and a 30% drop between Mumbai and Frankfurt. Preliminary investigations suggest the damage was likely caused by a merchant vessel, whose anchor may have dragged across the seabed, and Microsoft cautions that a full restoration could take several months.