Internet access problems were reported on Thursday in countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Cloudflare Radar, which provides information about internet connections, indicates that the disturbance is spreading across northern and southern Africa.
According to Netblocks, which monitors cybersecurity and Internet connectivity, network access in Côte d'Ivoire dropped to only 4% on Thursday morning, in Liberia it was 17%, in Benin – 14%, and in Ghana – 25%.
Africa without internet. Operators report failure of submarine cables
Vodacom, a mobile operator operating in South Africa, said customers were experiencing connectivity issues due to “several submarine cable faults”.
An outage was also reported in the MainOne system, an undersea communications cable running from Portugal to South Africa.
The Liberian government said that in the vast majority of the country, citizens do not have access to basic internet or social media. The issue also affects international bank transfers and international voice calls.
The Liberian Communications Authority said that the cause was an accident that occurred in Côte d'Ivoire related to the ACE (African Coast to Europe) submarine cable, which connects Africa to Europe.
Similar information comes from Ghana – according to local services, “several disturbances in submarine cables” were responsible for the failure.
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