A combination of cable cuts, resulting in equipment faults on the major undersea cables along the West African Coast, have negatively impacted data and fixed telecom services in several countries of West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, among others.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reported that the cuts occurred somewhere in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, with an attendant disruption in Portugal.
A statement by the commission’s Director, Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, on the incident indicated that cable companies, including West African Cable System (WACS) and African Coast to Europe (ACE) in the West Coast route from Europe, had experienced faults while SAT3 and MainOne experienced downtime.
Muoka clarified that similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), were reported to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in degradation of services across these routes.
Specifically, he stated that in Nigeria and other West African countries, Internet access and speed had experienced disruptions in the networks of service providers in the affected countries, adding that the cables’ operators have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored.
According to the Director, the operators have promised to work round the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.
He stated that the commission considered it important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporate and individual consumers on these services.
