Internet black-out hits West Africa

  1. Posted on Thursday 30 July 2009 - 14:49
    Murtala
    Image of Murtala
    Murtala Mohamed Kamara, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone
    Parts of West Africa are faced with internet black-out following a fault which is thought to have been caused by damaged SAT-3 fiber optic under sea cables which run through from South Africa to the West causing 70% of Nigeria's bandwidth cut while Togo and Benin remain offline.
    zanzibits_computer_ict_internet
    Telkom South Africa, one of the shareholders of SAT-3 is yet to disclose what caused the problem but revealed that it was aware of "a cable fault on the Benin branch that is being investigated".

    The fault has left many countries in the region struggling to get back online while the Nigerian banking sector, government and mobile phone networks are among the worst affected, according to a BBC report.

    Ladi Okuneye, chief marketing officer of Suburban Telecoms, the group which provides the majority of Nigeria's bandwidth said “SAT-3 is currently the only fibre optic cable serving West Africa," while adding that "So all West African countries have to use it."

    The report further revealed that companies in the region were forced to use alternative satellite links-to maintain connections to the rest of the world. The SAT-3 consortium announced that they are in the process of sending a ship to Cape Town, South Africa to investigate the fault but Okenye said that by the time the relevant paperwork was done, it was likely to be "two weeks" before the ship arrived off the coast.

Latest News

  1. OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success.
  2. Egyptians vote in historic election23/05Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who serv…
  3. Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/0525th May is Africa Day. For many years it has been a celebration of African unity. It dates back to 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) …
  4. South Africa's African agenda21/05The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Kgalema Mothlanthe paid a rare visit to Ghana in April at the invitation of John Dramani Mahama …
  5. Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05Just looking at her one clearly appreciates that she is old and frail therefore in need of support for food, clothing and shelter to live comfortably …
  6. Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05Changes in the climate globally have affected the movement of both migratory and resident species of birds, Nature Uganda has said.
  7. Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) is attributing the sharp depreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies to the illegal activiti…
  8. Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi with 100,000 inhabitants, had many of the ingredients for a political explosion similar to those that rocked…
  9. Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05Over the years, Zimbabwe has experienced the scourge of veld fires destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
  10. Liberia commends ECOWAS for support14/05The induction training of pioneer Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Volunteers for Liberia kicked off in Monrovia, with the Deputy Mi…
  11. Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.
  12. Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05Heavy Rainfall continued to wreak havoc across the country leading to the suspension of relief food in some parts of the country as most roads in Turk…
  13. Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05The Zimbabwean government mooted the concept of growth points in the 1980s as a means of decongesting cities and towns.
  14. Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05Sierra Leone has improved in infant mortality cases according to Save the Children- World Motherhood index 2012 report. The West Africa country descri…
  15. Zimbabwe: Resettled farmers fail to utilize…10/05Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe are failing to utilize land due to inadequate farming inputs and lack of resources.
News archive