Suspected Houthi attack: Nigeria, others hit by internet outage

Several African countries, including Nigeria, experienced significant internet disruptions on Thursday, suspected to be caused by attacks by the Houthi rebels on cables in the Red Sea.

The disruptions left millions without access to basic online services, banking services and international communications in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Burkina Faso. Other countries also reported outages.

Although there were no confirmed reasons for the disruptions, some experts point to a possible pattern of disruptions moving north to south.

Netblocks, an organization monitoring internet connectivity, reported sharp drops in internet access across affected countries. Liberia, for instance, saw connectivity plummet to just 4%, impacting essential services and businesses.

Investigations revealed failures in critical undersea cable systems, including the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable, a major artery connecting West Africa to Europe. Faults were also reported in the MainOne cable system serving Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.

“Africa Submarine Cable Situation Report – 14/3/24 Situation is Very bad,” Ben Roberts, Group CTIO of tech firm Liquid Intelligent Technologies, posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

He said, “East Coast of Africa to Europe Seacom/TGN – Cut; AAE1 – Cut; EIG – Cut; All cut in Red Sea West Coast of Africa to Europe WACS – Fault Mainone – Down; ACE – Fault SAT3-Down Faults near Abidjan.”

Government officials in Liberia and Ghana attributed the outage to undersea cable disruptions. Regional internet service providers like Vodacom (South Africa) confirmed experiencing issues due to multiple cable failures.

Red Sea Cable Cuts

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have targeted ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, they refute any involvement in the recent cable disruptions, attributing them instead to US and British military activities.

Earlier in February, Yemen’s internationally recognized government issued warnings regarding potential Houthi attacks on these undersea cables. Subsequently, disruptions in internet access were seen in Djibouti, a country served by the Seacom network.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that three vital undersea cables in the Red Sea, essential for global internet and telecommunications, were cut.

These include the Asia-Africa-Europe 1, the Europe India Gateway, Seacom, and TGN-Gulf lines. HGC Global Communications, based in Hong Kong, noted that these cuts impacted 25% of the Red Sea’s data traffic, emphasizing the critical role of this route for transmitting data between Asia and Europe.

Clarifications from experts revealed that the Seacom-TGN-Gulf line, although described as two separate cables, is actually one at the location of the damage. Tim Stronge, a subsea cable expert with TeleGeography, confirmed this detail.