Internet and mobile communication services were severed for three hours in Aswan Governorate on Tuesday, amid an ongoing feud between the Bani Hilal tribe and Nubian Daboudya family, which has left 26 dead over the last week, officials and residents said.
The outage, which affected internet and mobile services, was caused by a damaged communication cable linking Edfu and Luxor cities, the country’s fixed lines operator Telecom Egypt (TE) reported.
Service dropped from all three of Egypt’s mobile communication services, Vodafone, Mobinil, and Etisalat, between 12 and 3pm, said Basma Osman, an Aswan resident. TE said the services were gradually returned after the company sent a technical support team to fix the damage.
The three mobile companies couldn’t be reached for comment.
The Associated Press suggested an alternative narrative, however, quoting an anonymous official, who said the aim of the outage was to help security forces search for weapons and suspects during an investigation of the clashes.
Before the outage, several military troops were seen heading to the area where fighting is ongoing, Osman said.
