Vandalism and fires affect western Libya’s telecom service

Hatif Libya has reported damage to a main telecommunications facility in western Libya following what it described as an act of vandalism and a fire, as reported by Libya Review on August 12th. 

The incident has led to the causing of disruptions and instability in some communications services across the region.

The state-owned telecommunications company said several components of the facility’s infrastructure were damaged, affecting the performance of parts of its network. The areas of which were affected have not been specified nor was the amount of customers who were affected. According to the telecommunications company, teams of engineers, technicians, and maintenance workers were all dispatched to the facility immediately after damage was reported. 

Technical teams began inspecting the site and assessing the scale of damage as a way to determine the necessary repairs for the restoration of the affected infrastructure and telecommunication services. 

Hatif Libya stated that maintenance teams were working continuously to repair damaged components and restore services as quickly as possible. Work was continuing at the site, with specialized teams monitoring repairs and the performance of the network until operations were fully restored. 

The company apologized to customers for any disruption or instability they experienced due to the incident and said maintaining uninterrupted services and protecting the readiness of Libya’s national telecommunications infrastructure remained a priority. 

Hatif Libya did not provide any details about how the fire occurred or the nature of the vandalism, and no suspects for the incident were identified. Additionally there was no estimate of the financial damage provided, nor the timetable for the completion of repairs. 

The incident comes at a time of heightened concern over the security of critical infrastructure in western Libya, where recent instability such as the Al-Zawiya refinery drone attacks has affected several key facilities. 

Libya’s energy sector is facing high amounts of strain and outages due to the heightened levels of heat the country faces, and incidents affecting the energy sector have led to hiccups in the country’s stability in both electrical and civil contexts. 

Libya Review, Maghrebi.org.