A series of internet outages has swept through several African countries following damage to four critical submarine cables running along the region's coast.
In response to the crisis, Google's Equiano cable has emerged as a crucial alternative for maintaining connectivity along the West African coast.
The cables that were affected, including WACS, MainOne, SAT3, and ACE systems, have suffered downtime or damage earlier this week.
These downtimes disrupted connectivity across multiple countries on the continent. Sources indicate that the faults occurred somewhere off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire.
These cables, constituting a significant portion of West Africa's subsea connectivity, serve as vital conduits for internet traffic.
According to internet watchdog NetBlocks, the impact of the outage has been particularly severe in Cote D’Ivoire as all four affected cables converge at Cote D’Ivoire’s Abidjan landing station, which is situated near a deep undersea canyon.
In South Africa, the outage has severely impacted internet users, with reports of widespread disruptions and reduced speeds.
Telecommunications giants like Vodacom have issued warnings to customers about potential connectivity issues due to undersea cable failures.
Microsoft Azure customers in South Africa have also experienced network latency and drops, affecting access to resources.
Downdetector has recorded a surge in reported outages for services like Vodacom and Microsoft Teams since the onset of the disruption.
This incident echoes a similar outage in 2023, when a rockfall in the Congo Canyon caused breaks in the WACS and SAT–3 undersea fibre cables, disrupting internet services in South Africa.
As West Africa navigates the current outage, reliance on alternative connectivity solutions like the Equiano cable underscores the importance of diversifying communication infrastructure to ensure resilience in the face of such challenges.
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