Why Internet Disruptions Have Rocked Parts of Africa

MONDAY MARCH 18 2024

Workers lay a fibre optic cable in Nyeri County, Kenya. TDamages on multiple undersea telecommunication cables are the cause of a far-reaching connection outage that rocked parts of the African continent. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By KABUI MWANGI

Damages on multiple undersea telecommunication cables are the cause of a far-reaching connection outage that rocked parts of the African continent for the second day on Friday, with operators and Internet watch groups warning that the situation could take weeks if not months to fix.

As of the close of Friday, at least eight countries in the continent had reported major connectivity issues even as details regarding the cause of the sub-sea cable damages remained scanty.

According to reports by global media networks, the cable lines affected included the West Africa Cable System (WACS), MainOne, South Atlantic 3 and ACE sea cables—all of which are regarded as key continental arteries for telecommunications data.

MTN Group Limited, which is a prominent wireless carrier in Africa, however, said ACE and WACS had jointly initiated the repair process and at the close of Friday, they were expected to send a vessel to fix the damaged cables.

Among countries that took the biggest hit included Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Benin while Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa reported mild disruptions.

Others affected included Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, and Niger.

According to cybersecurity and Internet connectivity tracker Netblocks, connectivity in Côte d’Ivoire was down to around just four percent on Thursday morning, while Liberia at one point dropped to 17 percent as Benin and Ghana dropped to lows of 14 percent and 25 percent respectively.

Ghana’s National Communications Authority said cable disruptions also occurred in Senegal and Portugal.

“This has led to a significant degradation of data services across the country, with mobile network operators working around the clock to restore full services,” the authority said.

An unnamed spokesperson at Internet analytics firm Cloudflare was quoted by international media outlet Bloomberg as saying the technicians would need to first assess the extent of damage before commencing repair works, a process that would take a sizeable duration of time.

“Repairs can take weeks to months, depending on where the damage is, what needs to be repaired, and local weather conditions. The assignment of repair ships depends on several factors, including ownership of the impacted cables,” the spokesperson is quoted as saying.

By the close of the week, there were widespread fears that, if unchecked, the disruptions could hit essential services, especially in the worst-hit countries like Côte d’Ivoire where the effects were severe.

Africa leads mobile device web traffic in the world, with many of the continent’s businesses relying on the Internet to deliver services to their customers, a pointer to the devastating impact that a total outage could potentially result in.

Ghana’s main stock exchange was, for example, reported extending trading hours by 60 minutes on Thursday and Friday, while Nigeria’s second-largest cement manufacturer is said to have scrapped a call with investors as the damage to the cables obstructed business operations in multiple nations.

The impact of such cable failures worsens as networks attempt to route around the damage, potentially reducing the capacity available to other countries.

The latest disruption comes just under a month after three telecommunications cables were severed in the Red Sea, which is a core telecommunications route that connects Europe to Africa and Asia via Egypt, highlighting the vulnerability of critical communications infrastructure.

The cable cutting, which impacted about 25 percent of traffic between Asia and Europe as well as the Middle East, affected four major telecoms networks.

Underwater cables are the invisible force driving internet use globally, with many in recent years being funded by giant tech multinationals that include Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.

Most large telecom firms rely on multiple undersea cable systems, allowing them to re-route traffic in the event of an outage to ensure uninterrupted service.

Some of the natural causes that can cause damage to these networks include earthquakes as happened in Taiwan in 2006.