Several countries across Africa are currently experiencing a major internet disruption, causing inconvenience and hindrances to various sectors.
Countries including; Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Burkina Faso have reported outages, raising concerns about the stability of internet infrastructure on the continent.
One of the affected undersea cable systems is the MainOne cable, serving Nigeria’s commercial hub, in Lagos — one of the biggest cities in Africa.
The exact cause of these disruptions remains unclear, but experts are actively investigating the incidents.
Although Vodacom, a major telecommunications provider in South Africa, attributed the intermittent connectivity issues to multiple undersea cable failures.
Cloudflare Radar, a platform monitoring internet connections, has spotted a concerning pattern in the timing and distribution of these disruptions, spanning from the northern to the southern regions of Africa.
Reports from Netblocks, a cybersecurity and internet connectivity tracking service, paint a grim picture of the situation.
Ivory Coast witnessed a staggering drop to just 4% internet connectivity, while Liberia, Benin, and Ghana also experienced significant reductions with rates of 17%, 14%, and 25%, respectively.
The Liberian government also confirmed reports of internet disruption, indicating widespread impacts on citizens’ daily lives.
The Liberia Telecommunications Authority attributed the incident to a disruption in the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine communications cable in Ivory Coast.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) in Ghana also acknowledged multiple undersea cable disruptions as the cause of the outage, indicating a concerted effort to identify and resolve the underlying issues.
Basic Internet access, social media platforms, banking, and international transactions have all been severely affected, leaving individuals and business owners who rely on the Internet for business transactions, frustrated and unable to carry out essential activities.
However, the Authorities and telecommunications agencies in the affected countries have been working tirelessly to address the disruptions and restore internet services.
Also, Cloudflare, along with other industry players, has been actively monitoring the situation and providing updates on the evolving status of internet connectivity across Africa.
