Internet downtime in East Africa caused by fiber cut in the Red Sea.

Internet downtime in East Africa caused by fiber cut in the Red Sea. On Sunday 12th May 2024, internet users in Kenya and across East Africa encountered connectivity issues, with many struggling to browse.

The disruption was attributed to malfunctions in two undersea cables in the Red Sea. Ben Roberts, serving as the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, disclosed that three cable providers were still working to mend the cuts responsible for the outage. All sub-sea connections between East Africa and South Africa were offline at the time of his statement.

Roberts also confirmed faults in both the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) cable and the Seacom submarine cable. Notably, these faults were observed simultaneously.

EASSy spans 10,000 kilometers along Africa’s East Coast, linking nine landing stations from Sudan to South Africa. It serves as a crucial backhaul system for landlocked countries and enhances connectivity across the region. Meanwhile, SEACOM, a 17,000-kilometer cable, connects several countries including South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Ben Roberts summarized the situation, stating, “EASSy Cable – Fault confirmed, Seacom Cable – Observing Fault that occurred at the same time, 3 cable cuts in Red Sea (Seacom, EIG, AAE1) remain unrepaired.” Reports emerged from Tanzania indicating sporadic service disruptions and blackouts in certain areas on Sunday.

This incident isn’t the first time such disruptions have occurred. In March 2024, a cable break in the Red Sea prompted warnings of a potential two-month internet outage. Prior to that, in February, Kenyans were forewarned of another potential outage following a similar fault.