Internet connectivity was disrupted in several East African nations on Sunday due to faults reported on the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM cables.
Network providers, including regional giant Safaricom, scrambled to restore service by activating backup systems, but users reported significantly reduced speeds.
Internet monitoring group, NetBlocks, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stated, “Network data show a disruption to Internet connectivity in and around multiple East African countries.”
It was noted that Tanzania and the French Island of Mayotte were experiencing a high impact on Internet connectivity, while Mozambique and Malawi were seeing a medium impact.
Another Internet firm, Cloudflare, also confirmed on X that connectivity disruptions were ongoing in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator acknowledged the outage, which affected one of the undersea cables carrying internet traffic in and out of the country, and assured customers it was working to minimise disruptions.”
We have experienced an outage on one of the undersea cables that deliver internet traffic in and out of the country,” Safaricom said in a notice.
“We have since activated redundancy measures to minimise service interruption and keep you connected as we await the full restoration of the cable.”
This is the second major internet outage to hit Africa in recent months, following a similar incident in March 2024.
The outage experienced in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso, as well as South Africa, was attributed to damage to four sub-sea cables off the west coast of Africa, which disrupted connectivity across the continent.
The affected cables included the West Africa Cable System, MainOne, South Atlantic 3, and ACE sea cables, which are critical for telecommunications data.
The Chief Executive Officer of West Indian Ocean Cable Company, Chris Wood, said it could result in collective repair costs of about $8m for the four digital infrastructure companies affected.
The cable firms might need to allocate between $1m and $2m for the complete restoration of a single subsea cable, depending on the severity of the damage incurred, he explained in March.
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