Internet outage hits West, Central, southern Africa as major cable falters

Countries across the coast of West, Central and southern Africa are suffering an internet outage that started on Thursday. The situation remains unstable as at Friday (January 17).

Reports indicate that mobile phone access is also partly impacted by the outage which was triggered by a fault to a main cable along the coast.

The West Africa Cable System, WACS, developed a fault which has caused major telcos and internet service providers to lose connectivity.

Reports say the French-owned Orange group are not affected by the disruption. In Ghana for instance Vodafone’s services were unaffected whiles the largest operator, MTN, reported issues.

In announcing what it said were network challenges, MTN said the issues is “as a result of international undersea fiber cable cut.” It said data and international outbound calls were affected.

The situation is confirmed across much of West Africa, MTN Cameroon for example sent a message to customers confirming an issue that they said they were working to fix.

The situation is the same in the Republic of Congo and next door Democratic Republic of Congo. The problem extends further to Angola, Namibia till parts of South Africa.

MTN Congo sent a belated message to clients reiterating the message sent by their sister branch in Cameroon and Ghana.

“Cher client, une rupture du cable sous marin international (WACS) pertube les services internet au Congo et ailleurs. Nos efforts sont concentrés pour sa résolution rapide et vous serez informés des progrés. Toutes nos excuses,” the message read.

Source: africanews.com