 "Residents and displaced people try to access the internet via Starlink in the city of Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters")
Multiple underwater communications cables reported breakdowns on Thursday, causing a significant internet outage that affected twelve nations in Africa, according to network providers and online monitoring groups.
One of the biggest network providers in Africa, MTN Group, said that many significant underwater cable failures were the cause of the continued outages. The South African corporation released a statement saying, “Our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths.”
Across recent years, cable breakage has caused network outages across Africa. 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.
NetBlocks said data transmission and measurement shows a major disruption to international transits, “likely at or near the subsea network cable landing points.”
It was not immediately apparent why the failure occurred.
In the worst-hit nations, like the Ivory Coast, where the disruption was severe, there were worries that vital services may not be provided. Africa is the continent with the most mobile device online traffic in the world, since many businesses there rely on the internet to provide their clients with services.
Observers said that the system cables impacted by Thursday’s outage included SAT-3, MainOne, the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), and the West Africa Cable System (WACS).
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA pattern in the time of the disturbances that severely affected at least ten West African nations, including Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso, was discovered by internet analysis business Cloudflare.
Vodacom, South Africa’s mobile operator, also reported “intermittent connectivity issues due to multiple undersea cable failures.” Namibia and Lesotho were also affected.
The impact from such cable failures worsens as networks attempt to route around the damage, potentially reducing the capacity available to other countries, said Mater with NetBlocks.
“The initial disruption may be a physical cut, but subsequent issues could be of a technical nature,” said Mater.