Angola's largest telecommunications operator, Unitel, suffered a cyberattack in the early hours of Tuesday that knocked out voice, mobile data and internet services across the country, disrupting roughly 20.8 million customers and inflicting widespread economic damage — just one day before the company's scheduled debut on the Angolan Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA).
Unitel's board chairman, Aguinaldo Jaime, confirmed the incident on Tuesday morning at a public-enterprise accounts presentation event organised by the State Asset and Shareholding Management Institute (IGAPE).
The outage is affecting both individual consumers and corporate clients. Multiple businesses contacted by Expansão reported serious difficulties sustaining operations due to their dependence on Unitel's voice and internet services. The unavailability of the operator's systems is disrupting billing processes, communications with customers and suppliers, and the execution of commercial transactions.
Among the hardest-hit services are automatic payment terminals (TPAs) that run on Unitel's network. With those terminals offline, numerous commercial establishments have been unable to process electronic payments, forcing customers either to pay in cash or to postpone purchases entirely.
For individual subscribers, the disruption ranges from the inability to make or receive calls to the loss of both mobile and fixed internet access. Digital services that depend on internet connectivity — including ride-hailing apps, delivery platforms and electronic payment applications — are also experiencing severe operating difficulties.
In an official statement, Unitel said the cyberattack on its technology infrastructure was detected at approximately 02:20 on Tuesday, Angola time, and has affected voice services, mobile data and internet access across the entire national territory.
The company said it immediately activated the response and containment mechanisms established for such incidents, and that its technical and cybersecurity teams 'continue to work to mitigate the effects of the incident and ensure the full restoration of services,' which remain impaired.
The outage follows a separate, widespread network failure that Unitel experienced just days earlier, raising fresh questions about the resilience of the company's technology infrastructure at a particularly sensitive moment.
Rival operator Africell is meanwhile moving swiftly to capitalise on its main competitor's unavailability, intensifying commercial campaigns in response to rising demand. The prolonged Unitel outage could allow Africell to gain market share, particularly among corporate clients that depend on uninterrupted communications.
The timing of the attack compounds the pressure on Unitel as it prepares to make its market debut on BODIVA, where investor scrutiny of the operator's operational reliability and cybersecurity posture is likely to be heightened.
Source: Expansão / Original article: http://expansao.co.ao/empresas/detalhe/ataque-cibernetico-deixa-unitel-sem-rede-na-vespera-da-estreia-em-bolsa-73567.html
