Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), provided an update regarding the disruption affecting its Middle East (UAE) Region, (me-central-1) which has been ongoing since March when the Availability Zone experienced a power issue.
The company wrote in a status update this week that it has been unable to restore access to the resources and data hosted exclusively in the mec1-az2 Availability Zone. AWS went on to say that it is continuing to work to recover regional and zonal resources in the mec1-az1 and mec1-az3 Availability Zones.
“Since the disruption began in March, most customers have been able to re-establish their operations in other Regions by restoring backups or copying data that remained accessible,” the company stated.
“We remain committed to supporting our customers in the UAE. We are working on replacing the affected infrastructure and will provide an update on the restoration of our services in the coming months. We have notified the relevant authorities and continue to work with them toward that goal,” AWS added.
The cause of the outage at the mec1-az2 Availability Zone was initially attributed to a power disruption on March 1, 2026. However, later that same day AWS reported that mec1-az2 had been “impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire,” adding that the fire department had shut off power to the facility. A localized power issue also affected mec1-az3 on the same day.
It wasn’t until the next day that AWS reported that two facilities in the UAE and one in Bahrain had been damaged as a result of the conflict between the US and Iran which began on February 28, 2026.
“These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts,” the company said at the time.
AWS continued to provide updates through to April 30, 2026, when it advised that customers using its Middle East Region move their resources to other regions.
In July, w.media reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had carried out a strike targeting an AWS data center in Bahrain in retaliation for a US strike on a nuclear power plant that was being constructed in southwestern Iran. A week later the IRGC claimed responsibility for destroying the facility during Operation Nasr-2.