What just happened? An undersea cable failure has left many parts of West and Central Africa without internet access, causing disruption that is “indicative of a larger situation”. The exact cause of the cable failure is unknown, but several groups have recently been seen sabotaging undersea fiber-optic cables, including Yemini Houthi rebels attacking links in the Red Sea.
African submarine cable operator Seacom said its West African cable system service was down, The Guardian reported. The company added that customers who use the cable will be redirected to the Google Equiano cable.
“If a route is affected, redirection will occur automatically,” Seacom said.
Isik Mehta, research director at NetBlocks, which monitors internet outages around the world, said the outage was “indicative of something bigger.” [and] This is one of the most serious.”The company said the problem likely occurred at or near the cable landing point of the submarine network.
According to NetBlocks, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso are the most affected countries.
Cloudflare also blamed multiple submarine cable failures in the region, writing that disruptions continue in Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Niger.
Microsoft’s Azure status page states that multiple fiber cables (WACS, MainOne, SAT3, ACE) on the West Coast of Africa have been affected, reducing the total capacity supporting the South African region.
There are currently 529 undersea cables in operation or under construction, with 1,444 land points and more than 807,000 miles around the world. They carry around 90% of intercontinental data traffic and have become popular targets in recent years.
Last month, news broke that Yemen’s Houthi rebels are believed to have damaged an undersea data cable in the Red Sea that connects Europe and Asia, carrying about 17% of the world’s internet traffic. Microsoft says these continued cuts are exacerbating Africa’s current problems. Seacom is still waiting for permission to start repairing a broken undersea cable in the Red Sea.
In October 2022, several submarine cables in southern France were severed. There was some speculation that Russia, which wants to punish countries that supported Ukraine, was responsible, but that claim has been disputed.
The European Commission recently warned that undersea cables need to be made safer and more resilient in light of rising global tensions.
