Major Internet Disruption Hits Several African Countries

Several countries across Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ghana, and Burkina Faso, have reported major internet disruptions, causing significant inconvenience and economic impact. The outages have been attributed to multiple undersea cable failures, although the exact cause remains unclear.

Cloudflare Radar, a service providing information on internet connections, noted a pattern in the timing of disruptions across the continent, affecting regions from north to south.

In Ivory Coast, internet connectivity plummeted to just 4% on Thursday morning, according to Netblocks, a cybersecurity and internet connectivity tracking organisation. Similar drops were reported in Liberia, Benin, and Ghana.

Vodacom in South Africa confirmed intermittent connectivity issues due to multiple undersea cable failures, while a fault was reported on the MainOne cable system serving Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos.

In Liberia, the government acknowledged widespread internet disruption, impacting basic internet access, social media, and international bank transfers. Citizens expressed frustration over the inability to conduct essential tasks, with businesses suffering due to payment processing issues.

The Liberia Telecommunications Authority attributed the disruption to an incident involving the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine communications cable in Ivory Coast.

Ghana’s National Communications Authority also confirmed multiple undersea cable disruptions contributing to the outage.

Cloudflare highlighted ongoing internet disruptions in several other African countries, including The Gambia, Guinea, and Niger.

Dimension Data in South Africa informed clients of a cable failure on the West Africa Cable System, rerouting traffic via alternative lines. Seacom, facing its own cable damage, warned of extended repair times due to authorization delays.

Microsoft acknowledged investigating an outage affecting users in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, while reports of affected services mainly came from South Africa, Kenya, and the UK.

Bayobab Group acknowledged disruptions in West African countries and pledged to mitigate the impact on customers by rerouting traffic and expediting repair processes.

The Associated Press reported that three undersea cables were cut due to a sunken ship, allegedly attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The incident affected a cable segment from Mombasa, Kenya, to Zafarana, Egypt, according to Seacom and Dr. Thomas King, CTO at DE-CIX.