Unitel cyberattack before BODIVA listing

Angola's largest telecom operator, Unitel, suffered a cyberattack on July 28, 2026, disrupting voice, mobile data, and internet services nationwide. The attack occurred less than 24 hours before Unitel's planned stock market debut on the Angola Debt and Securities Exchange (BODIVA). Unitel detected the attack at 02:20 local time and activated response mechanisms, but services remained affected. The company did not disclose the nature of the attack or identify perpetrators. Despite the outage, Unitel began trading on BODIVA on July 29, 2026, following a successful IPO that raised $321 million from the sale of a 15% stake by the Angolan state through Angola — IGAPE. The IPO was oversubscribed by over 20%, reflecting strong investor demand. The incident highlights cybersecurity risks for critical infrastructure and operational resilience concerns for investors. Network data from RIPE NCC and Cloudflare indicated the disruption was internal, not external. The outage also affected point-of-sale terminals and business communications. Angolan authorities have not commented on the timing or any link to the IPO.