Damage To Submarine Cable Affects Internet Services In Ghana And Nigeria

Internet services in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African nations were interrupted on Thursday due to damage to at least three undersea cables off the coast of the continent.

The breakdown caused a paralysis in digital transactions and internet communications, leaving bank users and telecom subscribers stranded for hours.

The West Africa Cable System, MainOne, and ACE sea cables—arteries for telecoms data—were all impacted on Thursday, according to Bloomberg, one of the top financial news organizations in the world.

The cut caused outages and connectivity problems for mobile operators and internet service providers throughout the West African sub-region, according to data from internet analysis companies including Cloudflare, Kentik, and NetBlocks.

As of the time of publication, the reason behind the cable problems was still unknown, however MTN Nigeria, the telecom provider, issued a statement citing “damage to international undersea cables across East & West Africa” as the reason for the subscribers' network outage.

“The repair process is ongoing to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Please look out for further updates,” the company said.

The business also connected “multiple fiber cuts” to the network outage that affected its users for the majority of February 28, 2024.