Due to damage to underwater cables off the west coast of the continent, it may take weeks or even months to restore internet connectivity for millions of people in Africa.
Fixing the Internet Outage in Africa Can Take Weeks
On Friday, serious issues with connections continued to plague eight West African countries, affecting customers in South Africa as well due to damage to four underwater cables. Though shifting of the seafloor was one of the obvious explanations, the cause of the cable cutting remained unknown.
According to a spokesman at internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare, “repairs can take weeks to months, depending on where the damage is, what needs to be repaired, and local weather conditions.”
The main routes for telecommunications data, the Ace, MainOne, Sat-3, and West Africa Cable System (Wacs) sea cables, were all impacted on Thursday and Friday.
One of the biggest cellular carriers in Africa, MTN Group, announced that Ace and Wacs had started the repair process together and that a ship would be sent to mend the broken cables.
Other Businesses Also Engaged in Attempts to Restore the Cables
According to Orange Marine, the company is among the specialized businesses that will work on the cable repairs. Other businesses are also engaged in attempts to restore the different kinds of cables. The restoration time is unknown, it stated.
Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Benin are the most severely impacted, according to data indicating a significant disruption to connectivity in eight West African nations, according to a post on X by internet monitor NetBlocks.
Other nations affected are Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. In South Africa, several businesses have also reported service interruptions. Less than a month ago, three telecom cables were severed in the Red Sea, demonstrating the vulnerability of vital communications infrastructure.
The US and cable industry association Internet Cable Protection Committee have determined that the anchor of a cargo ship sunk by Houthi terrorists was most likely the cause. Through Egypt, the Red Sea serves as a vital communications corridor that links Europe with Africa and Asia.
Microsoft 365 Applications and Cloud Services Were Unavailable in Parts of Africa
Customers of such cables are rushing to find other ways as a result of the problems with the cables on both sides of the continent combined, which results in a capacity shortage.
Microsoft said that its Microsoft 365 applications and cloud services were unavailable in parts of Africa. Several South African businesses, including Microsoft and Nedbank, were still experiencing significant outages on Friday, according to the Downdetector website.
According to a statement from Telkom, Standard Bank, and its fiber unit Openserve were also impacted. Openserve added that traffic has been diverted.
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