In West and Central Africa, a significant internet blackout gripped the region as several subsea cables experienced disruptions. The exact cause of these failures remains shrouded in uncertainty, leaving users and experts puzzled. Amidst the chaos, SEACOM, one of the affected cable operators, took proactive measures by redirecting its impacted customers to the Google Equiano cable, attempting to restore connectivity and minimize the disruption to internet services in the region.
On Thursday, West and Central Africa experienced a significant internet outage, according to reports from the internet observatory Netblocks. The outage occurred as operators of numerous subsea cables in the region reported failures. The exact cause of these cable failures remains uncertain at this time.
SEACOM, a major African subsea cable operator, verified that its West African Cable System services were affected by the outage. As a result, customers dependent on this cable were directed to utilize the Google Equiano cable, which is also utilized by SEACOM.
According to an email statement, the redirection occurs automatically when a route is affected. Ivory Coast faced a severe outage, while Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso experienced significant disruptions, as indicated by data from Netblocks. Cloudflare, a prominent internet firm, highlighted ongoing major disruptions in Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Niger via a post on the X social media platform. Cloudflare Radar noted a discernible pattern in the timing of these disruptions, affecting regions from north to south Africa. South African telecommunications operator Vodacom also attributed connectivity issues to undersea cable failures, impacting the country’s network providers.