On Thursday, March 14th, a significant internet outage swept across West and Central Africa, severely impacting connectivity in countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Burkina Faso. The disruption, attributed to failures in several undersea cables, underscored the fragility of the region’s digital infrastructure. The cause of these failures remains undetermined, leaving millions without reliable internet access.
The African subsea cable operator Seacom reported the incident first, noting that its West African cable system had experienced downtime. In response, traffic was automatically redirected to the Google Equiano cable to maintain service continuity. This mitigation effort highlights the interconnected nature of global internet infrastructure and the immediate steps taken by operators to address connectivity issues.
While some companies, including Nigeria’s MainOne, were able to get internet services back following the initial outage, many are still struggling with providing stable connections during this time. The companies that are in charge of the undersea cables announced that it would take an estimated five weeks to repair the damage made to the cables, leading to spotty internet access for many across the continent. Ghana’s National Communications Authority released a statement saying the “five-week estimate is for full-service restoration.”
The outage’s impact was widespread, with NetBlocks and Cloudflare reporting significant drops in internet connectivity across the affected countries. In Ivory Coast, for instance, internet connectivity was reduced to around just 4%, showcasing the severity of the disruption. This situation has brought to light the critical reliance on undersea cables for internet access in Africa, where a higher proportion of internet traffic is on mobile devices compared to other continents.
The response to the cable failures has involved a range of stakeholders, from local telecom operators like Vodacom in South Africa to international organizations monitoring cybersecurity and internet governance. Efforts to route around the damage have been complicated, potentially reducing the capacity available to other countries and exacerbating the outage’s effects.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in the current internet infrastructure in Africa. It has sparked a conversation about the need for more resilient systems that can withstand such failures and prevent widespread disruptions. The reliance on a few undersea cables for the continent’s Internet connectivity poses a significant risk, emphasizing the importance of investing in alternative routes and technologies to ensure stable and reliable access.
As recovery efforts continue, the outage has highlighted the urgent need for improvements in Africa’s internet infrastructure. Diversifying connectivity sources and enhancing the robustness of the network can mitigate the impact of similar incidents in the future. This event is a call to action for both regional and global stakeholders to collaborate on strengthening the digital backbone of Africa, ensuring that the continent remains connected to the global network.
