Republic of the Congo
Internet connection in Congo-Brazzaville was restored on Saturday after 15 days of nationwide disruptions and slowdowns that started since June 9, 2017, after a damage to the country’s main submarine cables.
It was restored ahead of the five-week projected period given by the technical team working on the cut cable.
Network providers confirmed days after the outage that the problem was caused by a submarine cable cut off in the Atlantic Ocean near the economic capital Pointe-Noire.
Cedric Nzimbou, a network engineer with SkyTic Telecom – one of the country’s major network providers – told Africanews that the “12-kilometer fibre optic West African Cable System (WACS) that connects the country through Pointe-Noire to the international cable was cut off by a fishing vessel”.
He added that network providers were forced to provide internet using V-SAT which is slow and expensive as a result of huge taxes paid to use the service.
This was connected via a cable from Kinshasa in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Local media reported that the damage to the submarine cables was caused by a suspected Chinese fishing vessel.
Congo-Brazzaville is in Central Africa and bordered by five countries and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, where its second largest city – Pointe-Noire – connects the country to the rest of the world by sea.
Go to video
Seized Sassou Nguesso plane sold at auction for 7.1 million euros
Go to video
The Gambia secures 2nd AFCON appearance in earthquake-hit Marrakesh
Go to video
Sex, lies and social networks: in Africa, women politicians face misinformation
02:14
African and Asian rainforest nations join Amazon summit to discuss preservation
Go to video
Here is why South Africa is the most internet-addicted country in the world
00:45
Khartoum internet, mobile networks cut as fighting rages