Internet Disruption Grips East Africa: Undersea Cable Faults Blamed

Over the weekend, residents of Kenya and the wider East African region experienced a significant internet downtime, attributed to faults in undersea cables responsible for delivering internet traffic to and from the region. Safaricom, a leading service provider, acknowledged the disruption, citing an outage in one of the crucial undersea cables as the root cause.

In response to the outage, Safaricom took measures to mitigate service interruptions by establishing alternative communication paths. While efforts are underway to fully restore the affected cable, customers may experience reduced internet speeds in the interim.

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The disruption also affected other service providers, including VGG Connect, prompting messages to users notifying them of the slowdown in internet speeds.

Ben Roberts, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, confirmed that the outage stemmed from faults in two undersea cables in the Red Sea. These faults led to a complete loss of sub-sea capacity between East Africa and South Africa, severely impairing internet connectivity in the region.

EASSy, a vital submarine cable system along the East Coast of Africa, and SEACOM, spanning multiple countries, were among the affected cables. Roberts noted the unprecedented occurrence of faults in both cables simultaneously, exacerbating the impact on internet services.

The outage had ripple effects beyond Kenya, with neighbouring Tanzania experiencing a total blackout in some areas, further highlighting the widespread disruption.

This incident is not isolated, as undersea cable faults have been recurring challenges in the region. Earlier warnings of potential disruptions due to cable breaks in the Red Sea had been issued, indicating a recurring vulnerability in East Africa’s internet infrastructure.

Service providers across the affected countries are working to resolve the issue, but the widespread impact underscores the critical dependence on undersea cables for international connectivity. As efforts continue to repair the damaged cables and restore services, the incident underscores the need for diversification and resilience in the region’s internet infrastructure to mitigate future disruptions.