A major sub-sea fibre cut on Sunday caused widespread internet outages across East Africa, disrupting internet services for users in the region. Internet service providers (ISPs) in East Africa, as well as South Africa, were affected by the submarine cable cut, leading to slow internet speeds and connectivity issues.
Safaricom, one of the region’s telecom giants, acknowledged the outage and assured users that they were working to restore a stable internet connection. Redundancy measures were activated to minimize service interruptions while awaiting full restoration of the cable. However, users were warned to expect reduced internet speeds during this period.
Liquid Telecom’s Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Ben Roberts, confirmed faults in the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and the Seacom cables. He reported that all sub-sea capacity between East Africa and South Africa was down, with faults observed in the EASSy Cable and Seacom Cable.
Furthermore, Roberts highlighted unrepaired cuts in three other key submarine cables in the Red Sea: Seacom, EIG, and AAE1. These multiple cable cuts severely impaired internet connectivity to East Africa, exacerbating the widespread outage experienced by users in the region.
The incident underscores the vulnerability of internet infrastructure to disruptions caused by physical damage to submarine cables, highlighting the importance of redundancy measures and prompt repairs to minimize service interruptions and maintain reliable connectivity.
