Blue Economy
Undersea and Under Threat: How Fragile Cables Beneath the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz Hold the Digital World Hostage
Undersea and Under Threat: How Fragile Cables Beneath the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz Hold the Digital World Hostage
By Okeoghene Onoriobe
Waterways News Correspondent, Lagos
Invisible to the naked eye, imperceptible to the ships that sail above them, and almost entirely absent from mainstream security discourse — a slender web of fibre-optic cables snaking along the floors of the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz is quietly performing one of the most consequential tasks in the modern world. And in 2026, that web is under threat.
Just 17 undersea cable systems carry approximately 17 per cent of total global internet traffic, while routing nearly all of the critical data that flows between Europe and Asia. These are not peripheral infrastructure assets. They are the central nervous system of a multi-trillion-dollar digital economy — and the principal arteries feeding one of the fastest-growing technology booms the world has ever seen: the artificial intelligence revolution now reshaping the Middle East.
A Digital Gold Rush Built on Submarine Infrastructure
From the gleaming skyline of Abu Dhabi to the sprawling industrial corridors of Riyadh, the Gulf region is positioning itself as a global technology powerhouse. Microsoft has committed tens of billions of dollars to cloud and AI infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates. Amazon Web Services has opened a dedicated cloud region in Saudi Arabia. Google has established an AI hub near Dammam, targeting enterprise clients across the Arabian Gulf. These investments are not speculative ventures — they are strategic bets on a digital future that depends, fundamentally, on the uninterrupted flow of data across these underwater corridors.
Yet for all the architectural grandeur of these data centres, their connectivity to the rest of the world ultimately runs through cables no wider than a garden hose, lying exposed on the seabed beneath some of the most geopolitically volatile waters on the planet.
A Threat Landscape Both Old and New
The vulnerabilities are neither hypothetical nor new. Undersea cables have historically suffered damage from shipping anchors, trawling nets, and seismic activity. In early 2024, multiple cables in the Red Sea were severed — an incident widely linked to the escalating conflict in Yemen — causing significant disruptions to data traffic and forcing emergency rerouting through alternative routes at substantial cost to telecommunications providers. The incident was a stark warning that even the most sophisticated global digital infrastructure can be undone by instability in one critical maritime chokepoint.
In 2026, the threat calculus has grown more complex. Heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz — through which a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and roughly 20 per cent of global oil transits daily — now extend beyond energy to the digital domain. State and non-state actors increasingly understand that disrupting undersea cables is a low-cost, high-impact means of inflicting economic pain on adversaries without firing a single conventional shot.
Unlike a cyberattack that can be patched with software, or a trade dispute resolved at the negotiating table, a physically severed undersea cable requires months of specialised repair, involving cable-laying vessels — some of the most technically complex ships afloat — that are few in number globally and in perpetually high demand.
Stakes That Cannot Be Overstated
The consequences of a serious, prolonged disruption extend well beyond slower internet speeds. Modern banking systems, cross-border payment infrastructure, cloud computing services, and AI processing pipelines all depend on low-latency, high-bandwidth international data connectivity. A sustained outage affecting the Red Sea and Hormuz corridor would not merely inconvenience consumers — it could trigger cascading failures in financial markets, interrupt supply chain coordination systems, and compromise the cloud-based AI tools upon which governments and corporations now depend for critical decision-making.
In effect, the real theatre of 21st-century conflict may no longer be exclusively on land, at sea, or in the air. It may be 2,000 metres beneath the surface.
Nigeria Watch: What This Means for Nigerian Maritime and Digital Stakeholders
For Nigeria’s maritime sector and its growing technology economy, the vulnerability of Red Sea and Hormuz undersea cable infrastructure carries direct and material implications.
Nigeria is home to the landing points of several major international submarine cable systems — including SAT-3/WASC, MainOne, ACE, and WACS — that connect West Africa to Europe and, by extension, to Asia via transhipment through European internet exchange points. Any degradation of the Europe-Asia cable corridor elevates latency and increases bandwidth costs for Nigerian telecommunications operators and data centre providers, with downstream effects for fintech platforms, e-commerce, and digital financial services — sectors at the core of Nigeria’s growing blue economy ambitions.
From a maritime perspective, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) should take note that the same geopolitical dynamics disrupting undersea cables in the Red Sea also affect global shipping lane security — with implications for freight rates, insurance premiums, and voyage routing for Nigerian-flagged and Nigerian-bound vessels. A prolonged crisis in the Hormuz corridor would affect tanker availability and bunker fuel pricing, with knock-on effects for vessel operators calling at Apapa, Tin Can Island, and the Lekki Deep Sea Port.
The Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy would do well to incorporate undersea cable infrastructure protection into Nigeria’s broader maritime security framework — recognising that in an era of converging physical and digital threats, the distinction between a shipping lane and a data highway is increasingly academic.
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Oyetola Woos Turkish Investors for Fisheries Sector, Vows to Protect Artisanal Fishers
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, has thrown Nigeria’s fisheries sector open to Turkish investment, insisting that any fresh capital coming into the industry must strengthen and not sideline the millions of Nigerians who depend on artisanal fishing for a living.
Oyetola made the pledge while receiving a delegation from Turkish fisheries and aquaculture firm CRD Impex, led by the company’s General Manager for Fisheries, Cem Tarhan, at his Abuja office. He told the investors the Federal Government was ready to create an investment-friendly climate for credible local and foreign players willing to bring capital, technology and modern value-chain solutions to the sector, on condition that such investment remains inclusive.
“We welcome investors who can bring capital, technology, expertise and modern value-chain solutions to the sector. However, investment must be inclusive and sustainable. It must complement and empower our artisanal fish producers, not undermine their livelihoods,” the Minister said
He listed inadequate infrastructure, poor access to modern fishing technology, weak cold-chain systems, limited processing and storage capacity, and gaps in market access as the major constraints holding back the sector, framing each as an opening for targeted investment rather than a dead end.
The Turkish team, which included CRD Impex founder Hanefi Cardak and Tetra Underwater Services founder Ersun Buyukgoze, toured key fisheries and aquaculture points around the country to size up the terrain first-hand. Stops included the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal in Lagos, the Ozumba Mbadiwe Fish Market in Lekki, and the Esuk Nsidung Beach Market, a major waterfront seafood hub in Calabar, Cross River State.
The Ministry described the visit as part of a broader push to attract serious investment into Nigeria’s blue economy while keeping the welfare of artisanal fishers central to that growth.
Nigeria Watch
The Turkish courtesy call lands squarely in the pattern this desk has tracked all year: big-ticket investment pledges for Nigeria’s waterways, paired with familiar assurances that the small operator won’t be crowded out. The test, as always, is what happens after the photo-op.
Nigeria’s artisanal fishing communities occupy the same economic space as the informal boat operators represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, river- and creek-dependent Nigerians whose livelihoods rise or fall on decisions made far from the waterfront. The infrastructure gaps Oyetola cited which include, weak cold-chain systems, poor storage and limited market access, all mirror the exact complaints this desk has documented from inland waterway operators for years but modernisation announced from Abuja rarely reache the jetties.
Turkish capital chasing Nigerian fisheries and aquaculture is a genuinely new thread, distinct from the Strait of Hormuz shipping story or the CVFF disbursement saga this desk has followed closely. But the underlying question is the same one that has defined Oyetola’s tenure at the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy: will “inclusive investment” translate into contracts, cooperative partnerships and cold-chain infrastructure that artisanal operators can actually use or will it, like so many blue-economy pledges before it, stall at the courtesy-visit stage?
Waterways News will be watching for the first concrete CRD Impex commitment — site, timeline, or local partnership — as the marker of whether this one is different.
NPERA, NPA Open Technical Talks on Handover of Inland Dry Port Functions
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have begun formal engagement on transferring inland dry port oversight to NPERA, marking the start of what both agencies describe as a critical phase in operationalising Nigeria’s new port regulatory framework.
At a management-level meeting between the two agencies, officials focused on the technical groundwork for the handover, chiefly how to draw clear lines of responsibility and avoid duplication among the government bodies with a stake in inland dry port administration.
NPERA’s Director-General/CEO, Dr Akutah Pius, framed the transition as flowing directly from the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, whom he credited with steering the process toward the sector’s broader development. Akutah was emphatic that NPERA could not carry out the transfer alone, and said the buy-in of every relevant stakeholder agency would be needed to see it through.
He indicated that the Ministry would stay central to coordinating the process even as specific mandates move to the agencies best placed to execute them. Akutah also pointed to the Minister’s earlier interventions during the NPERA Bill’s passage through the National Assembly, which he said had defused inter-agency friction and set the stage for the cooperation now underway.
Describing the purpose of the meeting, Akutah said it was meant to formally kick off the transfer of inland dry port responsibilities to NPERA in fulfilment of its statutory role as economic regulator of the ports sector. He singled out Section 51 of the NPERA Act as a provision that now needs to be put into practical effect to keep the transition orderly and ensure stakeholder roles are properly aligned.
To manage the process going forward, the NPERA boss proposed setting up a joint committee drawing in NPERA, NPA, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. He argued that inland dry ports matter well beyond the coastline. They extend maritime sector benefits into Nigeria’s hinterland and reinforce the country’s trade and logistics chain.
Responding on behalf of NPA, Managing Director Dr Abubakar Dantsoho welcomed the move and pledged his agency’s full operational and technical backing throughout the transition. He said the process had started on the right footing, and that NPA would furnish updated data on the current state of inland dry ports to inform further discussions, expressing confidence that continued engagement would help the agencies meet their shared objectives.
NPA’s Executive Director, Engr. Lekan Badmus, also commended NPERA for setting the collaboration in motion, calling the meeting a solid first step toward a smooth integration. He noted the two agencies have now moved into the technical phase of the exercise, with close attention being paid to eliminating overlapping functions.
Closing the meeting, Akutah said the proposed joint committee would reconvene with the Minister to seek further guidance and agree on next steps to keep the transition on track.
Nigeria Watch
This meeting is the first visible test of whether the NPERA Act’s promise of a rationalised port regulatory architecture can survive contact with Nigeria’s crowded agency landscape. Section 51’s transfer of inland dry port functions to NPERA looks straightforward on paper; in practice, it touches NPA’s traditional port administration turf, NIWA’s inland waterways mandate, and the Ministry’s coordinating role all at once, precisely the kind of overlapping jurisdiction that has bedevilled reform efforts elsewhere in the sector, most visibly in the long-running NIWA-LASWA tussle that only the Supreme Court could settle.
The proposed joint committee of NPERA, NPA, NIWA, and the Ministry, is a sensible mechanism, but Waterways News readers who have followed the CVFF disbursement saga know that Nigerian maritime governance has no shortage of well-designed committees whose outputs never quite reach implementation. What will matter is whether Akutah’s “technical phase” produces a binding timeline, not another round of goodwill statements.
For inland dry port operators and the hinterland trade corridors that depend on them, the stakes are practical: unclear jurisdiction between NPA and NPERA has historically meant slower cargo evacuation, duplicated levies, and uncertainty for freight forwarders planning routes away from the congested Lagos ports. If this transition is handled well, it strengthens the case for dry ports as genuine pressure valves for Apapa and Tin Can. If it stalls in inter-agency turf negotiation, it becomes one more entry in the gap between policy pronouncement and delivery that this desk continues to track.
Worth watching: whether Minister Oyetola’s office sets an explicit deadline when the committee reconvenes, and whether NIWA, whose inland waterways mandate intersects with dry port hinterland connectivity, gets more than a seat at the table.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
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