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Blog · AWS Bahrain region - Events and timeline

AWS Bahrain region - Events and timeline

Published on November 3, 2026 · Reviewed by Abdullah Al-Mutairi

One of our clients received an AWS Health event on 28 October 2026 stating that their remaining active Reserved Instances in the Middle East (Bahrain) region, me-south-1, had been cancelled effective 1 October 2026. The event followed AWS’s 15 September assessment that it could not restore resources and data hosted exclusively in the region.

The region opened in 2019 as AWS’s first in the Middle East. It was built from three Availability Zones.

Timeline

  • 30 July 2019 — AWS opens Middle East (Bahrain), me-south-1, with three Availability Zones.
  • March 2026 — Drone strikes during the Middle East conflict damage AWS facilities in the UAE and Bahrain. In Bahrain, a nearby strike causes structural damage, power loss, and water damage from fire suppression. mes1-az2 is affected first. AWS advises customers to migrate workloads and replicate critical data to other regions. According to CNBC, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility.
  • April 2026 — A second Availability Zone is disrupted. The region becomes unavailable, and AWS suspends relevant billing operations.
  • 15 September 2026 — AWS determines that damage across multiple Availability Zones exceeded what its regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand. It says it cannot restore resources and data hosted exclusively in me-south-1.
  • 1 October 2026 — Remaining active Reserved Instances in the region are cancelled.
  • 28 October 2026 — A client receives the Health event detailing the cancellation, prorated refunds, and monthly credits for upfront fees paid between 23 March and 30 September 2026.
  • 31 October 2026 — Refunds become available, with credits visible in Billing and Cost Management.
  • Early 2027 — A further update on Bahrain is expected.

What the timeline shows

  • Three Availability Zones protect against failures inside a region, not the loss of the region itself.
  • Data residency is not durability. A copy that exists only in the affected region is not a backup.
  • Reserved Instance refunds restore money, not data, uptime, or customer confidence.

The region launched in 2019 and could not be restored in 2026. The practical question is where the next copy of the data lives.

Resources and sources

Primary coverage

Arabic and GCC coverage

  • Reuters Arabic, 3 March 2026: reuters.com/ar
  • AIcast, “تعطل مراكز بيانات AWS في الخليج يمتد لأشهر بعد أضرار مرتبطة بالنزاع,” updated 2 October 2026: aicastmedia.com
  • Almaghza, “AWS لا تستطيع استعادة الوصول إلى البيانات في منطقة البحرين,” 17 September 2026: almaghza.com
  • Saudi Shopper, “منطقة AWS البحرين تتعطل مجدداً,” 25 March 2026: saudishopper.com.sa

Technical and residency references

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