Numerous subsea cables have experienced malfunctions, resulting in a lack of internet access for a significant portion of western and central Africa.
The reason behind the cable malfunctions on Thursday was not readily apparent.
Seacom, the subsea cable operator in Africa, has verified the disruption of services on their west African cable system. Customers who depend on this cable are being redirected to the Google Equiano cable, which is also utilized by Seacom.
The email stated that the redirection occurs automatically when a route is affected.
Network disruptions caused by cable damage have occurred in Africa in recent years. However, today’s disruption “points to something larger [and] this is amongst the most severe,” said Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, a group that documents internet disruptions around the world.
According to NetBlocks, the transmission and measurement of data have experienced a significant disturbance in international routes, potentially occurring at or in close proximity to the points where submarine network cables are connected.
The outage has impacted at least twelve countries, causing concerns about disruptions to critical services in more heavily affected regions like Ivory Coast.
Africa has a higher proportion of its internet traffic on mobile devices than any other continent, with many of its businesses relying on the internet to deliver services to their customers.
According to Netblocks, which tracks cybersecurity and internet governance, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso were significantly impacted.
Cloudflare, a company that manages internet infrastructure, announced on X that significant interruptions were persisting in the countries of Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Niger.
Namibia and Lesotho also experienced the impact.
“Cloudflare Radar noted a consistent trend in the timing of the interruptions, affecting regions across North and South Africa.”
Vodacom, a telecommunications company in South Africa, cited undersea cable failures as the cause of connectivity issues for the country’s network providers.
According to Mater, the consequences of cable failures become more severe when networks try to redirect around the issue, which could result in a decrease in available capacity for other nations.
“She mentioned that the first disturbance could involve a physical severance, but any follow-up complications may pertain to technical aspects.”
Source: theguardian.com
