Nigeria: Undersea Cable Cuts Disrupt Data, Voice Services Along African West Coast

Working to Install a fiber optic cable (file photo).
press release

Operators of these cables have commenced repairs.

A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cote de Ivoire, among others.

The cuts occurred somewhere in Cote de'Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal.

Cable companies - West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe have experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne have downtime.

Similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), are said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across on these routes.

In Nigeria and other West African countries, Internet access and speed have experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries.

Operators of these cables have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored.

They have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.

It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers on these services.

Signed:

Reuben Muoka

Director, Public Affairs

March 14, 2024

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.