Damage to undersea cables leads to internet disruptions across Africa

On Thursday, internet connectivity across the African continent was disrupted as reports emerged of damage to vital subsea cables off the western coast. The West Africa Cable System, MainOne, and ACE sea cables, serving as crucial conduits for telecommunication data flow, were all impacted, plunging mobile operators and internet service providers into a state of disarray.

According to data from esteemed internet analysis firms like NetBlocks, Kentik, and Cloudflare, Thursday’s incident triggered widespread outages and connectivity hurdles. The cause of the cable faults remains a mystery, leaving tech experts grappling with the aftermath of the disruption.

NetBlocks, an internet watchdog, sounded the alarm on significant connectivity disturbances in eight West African nations, with Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Benin bearing the brunt of the outage. Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and several other countries also felt the ripple effects of the cable malfunctions. Meanwhile, reports of service disruptions flooded in from South Africa, exacerbating the crisis.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis firm Kentik, described the situation as a “devastating blow” to internet connectivity along Africa’s western coast, warning of prolonged disruptions in the weeks to come.

In Nigeria, the Communications regulatory body, NCC, issued a press statement on this issue.

Undersea Cable Cuts Disrupts Data and Voice Services along African West Coast

A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast have negatively impacted on data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cote de Ivoire, among others.

The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote de’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal. Cable companies – WACs and ACE in the West Coast route from Europe, have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.

Similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, EIG, AAE1, are said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across on these routes. In Nigeria, and other West African countries, Internet access and speed have experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries.

Operators of these cables have commenced repairs already and services are gradually being restored. They have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.

It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers of these services.

Reuben Muoka Director, Public Affairs March 14, 2024

This setback follows closely on the heels of a similar incident in the Red Sea, where three telecommunications cables were severed, reportedly by Houthi militants. The incident underscored the vulnerability of critical communications infrastructure in the region, prompting concerns over the security of vital underwater cables.

The Red Sea, serving as a vital telecommunications artery linking Europe to Africa and Asia via Egypt, suffered a substantial blow, with approximately 25% of regional traffic disrupted. This forced internet providers like HGC Global Communications to reroute traffic via alternative cables, including those along Africa’s western coast.

The compounding challenges posed by cable disruptions on both sides of the continent have created a capacity crunch, leaving customers scrambling to find alternative routes to maintain connectivity.

Major wireless carriers such as MTN Group and Vodacom Group Ltd. reported significant disruptions, affecting network providers in South Africa and other regions. In response, these companies are working tirelessly to reroute traffic and expedite the repair process for the damaged cables.

The ramifications of the undersea cable failures reverberated beyond the telecommunications sector, affecting cloud services and applications provided by tech giants like Microsoft Corp. The company confirmed disruptions to its cloud services and Microsoft 365 applications across Africa, attributing the issues to the combined impact of cable cuts on both the west and east coasts.

Last year’s incident, involving damage to the West African Cable System and the South Atlantic 3, serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of underwater infrastructure. It took nearly a month to restore international traffic flow along the west coast of Africa, highlighting the challenges associated with repairing subsea cables.