The service providers were forced to reroute much of the traffic between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, including internet traffic.

Telecom companies said the outage began after cables of four major networks in the Red Sea were damaged.

According to Hong Kong telecoms company HGC Global Communications, four major telecoms networks’ cables were “cut” causing “significant” disruption to communications networks in the Middle East.

Around 25% of traffic between Asia and Europe along with the Middle East was affected, it estimated.

Meanwhile, the company did not disclose how the cables were damaged or who was responsible for damaging them.

Seacom, which owns one of the affected cable systems, told CNN that it would be able to begin repair work for at least another month as it takes time to secure permits to operate in the area.

The disruption comes amid the geopolitical tension in the Red Sea where Houthi rebels have been allegedly targeting Israel-linked and some Western countries’ ships.

Earlier, the Yemeni government warned that the rebels would target the cables.

While earlier reports from Israeli news outlet Globes blamed the Houthis for the damage to the cables, the Yemeni rebel group denied the allegations.

“We have no intention of targeting sea cables providing internet to countries in the region,” Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi said.

The 25,000-kilometer Asia-Africa-Europe 1 cable system, connecting South East Asia to Europe via Egypt, is among the networks affected.