SadaPay App Is Down Again — AWS Bahrain Hit by Drone Activity for the Second Time This Month
I opened SadaPay this morning to make a quick transaction but was facing below issue:
And later when i tired earlier after “5 o’clock”
and got hit with a “Service Update” screen instead. No dashboard, no balance, no transfers — just a message saying the app is currently unavailable for all users. Debit card, ATM, and POS payments apparently still work, but the app itself is completely dead.
SadaPay’s infrastructure runs on Amazon Web Services in Bahrain, and that’s exactly where the problem is. Again.
And for the thoughts like will Sadapay run away as like Treasure NFT, i don’t think so.
No from my side, they won’t.
What SadaPay’s Notice Says
The company posted a detailed service update confirming the outage is tied directly to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Their statement explains that AWS Bahrain has been disrupted since drone strikes hit the area on March 1st, and that overnight conditions in the affected region worsened, causing a full app outage for all users.
SadaPay specifically called out that this isn’t something they broke on their end. Their words: they’re dealing with the downstream consequences of physical damage to shared cloud infrastructure, similar to many financial services across the Gulf and broader region. They’ve described it as “not a SadaPay-specific failure” but confirmed they’re treating it with full urgency.
What still works according to SadaPay:
- Your money is safe and fully accounted for.
- Debit cards, ATMs, and POS payments continue to function.
What doesn’t work:
- The SadaPay app itself — completely down, can’t log in, can’t see balances, can’t make in-app transfers.
This Is the Second AWS Bahrain Disruption in March 2026
Here’s the larger context that makes this more than an ordinary outage. Bahrain AWS has now been interrupted two times in the same month due to the Middle East conflict.
AWS data centers in other countries would not have access to these batteries since AWS does not build batteries in all of its data centers. All of the facilities are operating normally, to mention some reported by CNBCAt least two AWS facilities in UAE were hit directly with drones whereas a strike near the Bahrain facility didn’t not target the infrastructure but there was physical damage AWS later confirmed that 38 services had been affected in its UAE region and 46 in Bahrain. The damage included structural damage, powering delivery issues and water damages from fire suppression.
That was three weeks ago. AWS began recovering and migrating as of that date. And now today — the 24th of March — AWS has announced that once again, the Bahrain region is disrupted, with continued drone activity playing a part. AWS is encouraging customers to shift workloads to different regions, and many have already done so, according to The National.
SadaPay, it seems, is still not completely migrated. Which is why the app is again down.
It’s Not Just SadaPay — Multiple Financial Services Were Affected
When the first AWS disruption hit in early March, the damage spread across the entire Gulf fintech and banking ecosystem. Dawn reported that the outage affected multiple businesses relying on AWS in the region.
CNBC confirmed that
- Careem,
- Alaan,
- Hubpay,
- Investing app Sarwa,
all reported outages.
Even major banks weren’t spared — Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) reported issues with its mobile app and contact centre, and Emirates NBD confirmed phone banking disruptions.
SadaPay had already been dealing with a separate issue before this. Users reported seeing incorrect deductions and negative balances in their accounts, which the company attributed to a temporary problem with a technology partner. That issue and this AWS outage appear to be separate problems, but the timing has understandably rattled some users.
Why SadaPay’s Servers Were in Bahrain in the First Place
AWS Bahrain (ME-SOUTH-1) is one of the primary cloud regions for companies operating in Pakistan and the Middle East. For a Pakistani fintech like SadaPay, hosting on AWS Bahrain makes sense under normal circumstances — it provides low latency for Pakistani users, complies with regional data handling expectations, and sits within the broader AWS Middle East footprint.
The problem is that nobody designed their infrastructure planning around the scenario of data centres getting physically hit by drone strikes during a regional war. This is genuinely unprecedented. As one cybersecurity fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations noted after the first strike, it’s believed to be the first time a commercial data centre was physically targeted in a military conflict.
AWS has been telling customers to migrate to alternate regions — other AWS locations in Europe, Asia, or the US — but migration isn’t instant, especially for financial services companies that handle regulated payment data. SadaPay is likely working through that process right now, which is why the app hasn’t recovered yet.
What SadaPay Users Can Do Right Now
Not much, honestly. They said that the app was currently down, without a timeline for when it would return. As for the first outage, which is how it went down in early March, recovery took several days in some affected services.
In the meantime:
- All your SadaPay debit cards are working on ATMs and POS terminals. Physical transactions do not go through the app.
- No need to panic about your balance — SadaPay confirmed funds are safe and accounted for. The challenge is not loss; it’s access.
- For now, if you have to do any urgent transfers, you will need another alternative banking app until SadaPay service is restored.
- Monitor SadaPay’s social media for the next update — they have stated they will publish when there is an update.
I’m on the same boat as everybody else waiting for this. I had a transaction I wanted to push through today and it’s sitting there. Fingers crossed they can either recover AWS Bahrain soon or finish migrating to another region. Will revise this if that situation changes.
