East Africa outages stir fears over Africa’s internet vulnerabilities

Fresh damage to undersea cables that supply African countries with the internet has raised new fears about the continent’s network vulnerabilities. The damage marks the third widespread disruption since the start of the year.

Internet users in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda reported different levels of disruption between Sunday and Monday following cuts to two submarine cables, EASSy (East Africa Submarine System) and Seacom. The breaks also caused disruptions in Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar, according to Cloudflare, a US internet data company.

Kenya’s communications authority said the process of recovery had begun, though “slow speeds may remain in the coming few days.” Telecom operator Safaricom said it would source “additional capacity with other undersea cable partners” to make up for the shortfall in connectivity. MTN and Telkom, two South African telecom majors operating in East Africa, said they were trying to “minimize” the disruption.

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