Major internet outages were reported in a dozen countries across Africa including South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, Niger, and Burkina Faso on Thursday. According to network operators and Internet watch group, the internet outages were a result of multiple undersea telecommunication cable failures. However, the cause of the cable failures is not immediately clear.
There were fears of disruption of essential services in worst-hit countries like Ivory Coast where the disruption was severe. Internet connectivity in the Ivory Coast was down to around just 4% on Thursday morning, according to Netblocks, which tracks cybersecurity and internet connectivity. Liberia at one point dropped to 17% while Benin was at 14% and Ghana at 25%, Netblocks said.
Citizens are unable to access the basic internet as well as social media across the vast majority of the country. International bank transfers are also reported to be affected while there are limited international voice calls. The MTN Group, one of Africa’s largest network providers assured customers of efforts to restore connections “Our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths.” NetBlocks indicated that the network “disruption points to something larger (and) this is amongst the most severe.”
