On Thursday, a widespread internet outage hit West, Central and Southern Africa, plunging countries across the continent into connectivity chaos.
Reports from the Internet observatory Netblocks indicated that multiple subsea cables experienced failures, leading to extensive disruptions that reverberated throughout the affected nations.
?? Update: Metrics show the West and Central #Africa telecoms outage is ongoing, with further declines in connectivity observed to multiple countries through the day; the incident is attributed to cable damage impacting the WACS, MainOne, SAT3 and ACE subsea fiber networks ? pic.twitter.com/UW36sKay6J
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) March 14, 2024
While the precise cause of the cable failures remains shrouded in uncertainty, the impact of the outage was keenly felt across various sectors. African subsea cable operator SEACOM confirmed the outage, revealing that its West African Cable System had succumbed to the disruptions.
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As a contingency measure, customers reliant on this cable were automatically redirected to the Google Equiano cable, which SEACOM utilizes, albeit with potential limitations in bandwidth and capacity.
Netblocks’ data painted a grim picture of the situation, with severe outages reported in Ivory Coast, a critical economic hub in the region. Additionally, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso experienced significant disruptions, exacerbating challenges for businesses, government agencies, and ordinary citizens reliant on stable internet connectivity.
The undersea cables were impacted with varying degree of damages.
Africa Submarine Cable Situation Report – 14/3/24
Situation is Very bad.
East Coast of Africa to Europe
Seacom/TGN – Cut
AAE1 – Cut
EIG – Cut
All cut in Red Sea
West Coast of Africa to Europe
WACS – Fault
Mainone – Down
ACE – Fault
SAT3-Down
Faults near Abidjan— Ben Roberts ???? (@benliquidkenya) March 14, 2024
Cloudflare, a prominent internet firm, echoed these findings, highlighting major disruptions in Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Niger.
“There seems to be a pattern in the timing of the disruptions, impacting from the north to the south of Africa,” Cloudflare Radar said.
Cloudflare’s analysis revealed a discernible pattern in the timing of the disruptions, suggesting a coordinated impact that traversed geographical boundaries from the northern to the southern regions of Africa. This synchronized disruption further underscored the systemic nature of the outage, raising questions about the underlying causes and vulnerabilities of the region’s digital infrastructure.
In a statement on Thursday, telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria, explained that the network outage experienced by its subscribers was a “result of damage to international undersea cables across East & West Africa”.
“The repair process is ongoing to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Please look out for further updates,” the company said.
— MTN Nigeria Support (@MTN180) March 14, 2024
The impacts weigh heavily
The economic ramifications of the internet outage were profound, with businesses across various industries grappling with the sudden loss of connectivity.
Businesses across various sectors, from finance to manufacturing and e-commerce, rely heavily on uninterrupted internet connectivity to conduct operations, communicate with clients and customers, and facilitate transactions. The sudden disruption in internet services dealt a severe blow to productivity and revenue generation, exacerbating operational challenges in an already challenging economic environment.
E-commerce platforms, which have witnessed significant growth in recent years, bore the brunt of the outage as online retailers struggled to process orders and manage inventory. Customers faced difficulties accessing websites and completing transactions, leading to potential revenue losses and damage to brand reputation.
In the financial sector, banks and financial institutions grappled with disruptions to online banking services, hindering customers’ ability to conduct transactions, access account information, and make payments. The outage underscored the vulnerability of digital banking infrastructure and raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities amid heightened reliance on online financial services.
Furthermore, the outage had broader implications for economic activities dependent on internet connectivity, including remote work arrangements, education, and telemedicine services. Remote workers encountered challenges accessing work-related applications and communication platforms, disrupting workflow and collaboration efforts. Similarly, students and educators faced obstacles in accessing online learning resources, exacerbating existing disparities in access to education.
The economic impact of the internet outage extended beyond immediate disruptions to business operations and consumer activities. Analysts note that investor confidence in the region’s digital infrastructure and business environment may suffer as concerns about the reliability and resilience of critical infrastructure, such as subsea cables, are heightened.
E-commerce platforms, financial institutions, and online service providers faced operational hurdles, disrupting transactions, communications, and day-to-day business activities. Moreover, the outage cast a shadow over the region’s digital transformation efforts, highlighting the fragility of critical infrastructure and the pressing need for robust contingency plans and redundancy measures.