Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, the UAE’s third largest lender by assets, has reported an IT disruption affecting its mobile banking application and contact center services following drone strikes that damaged Amazon Web Services data centers in the country. The outage has impacted a wide range of digital platforms and financial institutions as cloud infrastructure in the region faced operational setbacks.
Amazon confirmed late Monday that two of its data centers in the UAE and one facility in Bahrain were damaged after being struck by drones. The incidents took the facilities offline and triggered widespread service interruptions across multiple sectors that rely on AWS infrastructure. According to AWS, structural damage and disruption to power delivery systems occurred after objects struck one of its facilities, creating sparks and fire. In Bahrain, a nearby drone strike caused physical impact to infrastructure. Fire suppression measures were deployed, resulting in additional water damage. The AWS Health Dashboard indicated that disruption remained ongoing as of Tuesday morning, with the company advising customers operating workloads in the Middle East to migrate to alternate AWS regions to maintain continuity.
Digital platforms across the UAE quickly began reporting outages. ADCB said in a note to customers that due to a region wide IT disruption, its mobile banking application and contact center services were temporarily unavailable. Emirates NBD also confirmed that its phone banking services were affected on Monday, though services resumed by Tuesday. Delivery and ride hailing platform Careem experienced service interruptions, but cofounder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha later stated that operations were fully restored. Payments firms Alaan and Hubpay reported login issues and temporary app outages as a result of the AWS disruption, while investing platform Sarwa said its services were impacted before core operations came back online on Tuesday. Enterprise software provider Snowflake also reported elevated connectivity issues and increased error rates within the region, warning that disruptions would persist until underlying power issues were resolved.
The broader context of the disruption follows joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran over the weekend, which resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and prompted retaliatory attacks across the region. Military bases and critical infrastructure have reportedly been targeted, including data centers and oil and gas production facilities. A large plume of black smoke was seen rising from the Fujairah industrial zone on March 3, underscoring the scale of the regional tensions. Iran’s actions since February 28 have led the UAE to temporarily shut its airspace, affecting travel and operations in what has traditionally been considered one of the Gulf’s most stable destinations.
The ripple effects extended beyond technology platforms. The reported closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent shockwaves through global energy markets, contributing to rising oil prices amid concerns about supply disruptions. U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Tuesday, with declines also recorded in European and Asian markets. As recovery efforts continue, companies operating in the region are working to stabilize digital services and reassess infrastructure resilience in light of the recent attacks. AWS stated that it is making progress across multiple workstreams to restore operations, while customers are being urged to take proactive steps to ensure business continuity during the ongoing recovery process.
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