Internet connectivity in several African countries was interrupted Thursday after major undersea cables experienced temporary faults, network providers have reported.
- Netblocks, an internet monitoring company, revealed that Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Benin experienced severe outages lasting up to 12 hours.
- The Gambia and Guinea had less severe disruptions as the internet was restored after half an hour.
- The West African Cable System (WACS) and SAT-3 cables off the Abidjan coast faced a downtime.
African Telecommunications giant, MTN Group, has reported internet outages in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, promising to solve the issue within the shortest time possible.
“Recognising the critical importance of consistent internet and communication services, we are fully committed to swiftly addressing these disruptions,” said MTN in a statement.
According to My Broadband, South African internet users had difficulties logging into Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, Xbox, X(formerly Twitter), and even Whatsapp. Other Telcos like Vodacom acknowledged that slow internet connection hit areas like Gauteng and Western Cape hardest.
Some internet providers reliant on the damaged cables were forced to seek alternatives, but cable cuts in the Red Sea and the East African coast affected key lines such as Seacom, TGN, and the EIG.
Submarine cables account for 90% of the continent’s internet needs. There are more than 500 active undersea cables around the world. Minor damages have slowed internet connectivity but it is still unclear whether sabotage plays a part in these events.
Likely Reasons
Although it is still unclear what caused the cable cuts, the likeliest reason is seismic activity off the coast of Ivory Coast, which worsened the situation caused by ongoing attacks on maritime traffic off the coast of Yemen on the other side of the continent.
In mid February, escalating Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea included missile attacks on a bulk carrier named the Rubymar. The ship’s hull was damaged on February 18th, forcing the crew to abandon it. It eventually sunk on 3rd March, and analysts believe that it may have been dragging its anchor on the sea floor, damaging the undersea cables. The sinking also poses environmental risks, as the ship was hauling 21, 000 metric tons of fertiliser, and the damage caused extensive oil spills.
The spilling over of the Israel-Palestine conflict into the Red Sea has posed great risks to maritime traffic using the crucial route. It has forced insurance companies to hike premiums, and shipping companies to use the longer route to the south of the African continent.
The internet disruptions now present a new element in the conflict, as repairs in the Red Sea have been complicated by the fact that the cuts are on Yemeni territorial waters. According to Seacom and other cable operators, repairs will take up to eight weeks, and undersea cable operators have been forced to rely on redundancies and reroute internet traffic to other cables.
The disruptions have also stimulated discussion on the transition to Satellite internet, which is still costly and unpopular in the continent. They also raise critical questions on the safety of the continent’s digital infrastructure at a time when African countries are moving towards a digital future.
