Damaged undersea cable disrupts connectivity in West Africa

The African Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable was severed, provoking internet disruption in ten west African countries. The most severe Internet outage happened in Mauritania. The country was left offline for 48 hours. The cable system stretches 17,000 kilometres from France to South Africa, helping to provide internet connection to 22 countries – mostly located on Africa’s west coast. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and the Gambia experienced significant disruption, while Benin, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast all faced less serious problems.