Major internet disruptions were recently reported indicating a significant outage across various African countries, affecting South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. As of the latest updates, connectivity issues have been largely resolved in Liberia and South Africa, but the initial cause of these widespread outages remains undetermined, leading to considerable inconvenience for millions of users across the continent.
Cloudflare Radar, a provider of internet connection information, observed a pattern in these disruptions, noting their progression from north to south across Africa. An expert, now retired, suggested to the BBC that such outages could be attributed to undersea cable damage from debris or geological activities like undersea landslides, which can displace large volumes of sediment and damage these critical infrastructures.
The incidents have severely impacted various sectors, with individuals like Cheick Senou, a fashion designer from Ivory Coast, expressing significant challenges in conducting business due to the lack of internet access. On Thursday, connectivity levels plummeted, with Netblocks reporting connectivity as low as 4% in Ivory Coast, 17% in Liberia, 14% in Benin, and 25% in Ghana.
Telecommunications companies, including Vodacom in South Africa, acknowledged the intermittent connectivity issues, citing multiple undersea cable failures. In Nigeria, the MainOne cable system, essential for Lagos’s connectivity, experienced reported faults. The Liberian government also confirmed substantial internet disruptions from Thursday morning, affecting basic internet services, social media access, international banking transactions, and voice calls.
Individual accounts from regions like Liberia underline the profound effect of the outage, with individuals like Benjamin Garkpah and Fatumata Barry expressing the detrimental impact on their daily lives and businesses.
Authorities in affected countries, such as the Liberia Telecommunications Authority and Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA), have attributed the disruptions to incidents involving key submarine communications cables like the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable. These events highlight the vulnerability of digital infrastructures in Africa and the critical need for robust mechanisms to ensure uninterrupted internet connectivity.
