Seacom suffers cable break
Seacom has announced that it has been experiencing a service outage on its subsea cable system in the Red Sea region since Saturday, 24 February 2024.
The company says it has been unable to confirm the cause of the cable break and added that other cables in the area also appear to be impacted.
It said the disruption is only on the segment of cable running from Mombasa, Kenya, to Zafarana, Egypt.
Seacom said the geopolitical sensitivity and ongoing tensions in the region make it a challenging environment for maintenance and repair operations.
“At this time, Seacom is unable to confirm the cause of the disruption but is working with its cable repair partner to assess the feasibility of the repair in the region,” it said.
“Seacom still continues to carry traffic on its own cable between Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa for both transmission and IP services.”
It added that it rerouted all other IP-based services destined for Europe and other regions via Seacom’s alternative routes on the Equiano, PEACE, and WACS cable systems.
It said this would ensure “clients remain operational with some latency in their Internet communications”.
“Although the impact on some of our clients has an impact on their businesses across East and Southern Africa, Seacom has been working diligently to ensure the continuity of its services,” Seacom added.
The company had issued a precautionary warning earlier in February, explaining that any disruptions to the cable system could be impacted regarding repairs due to the instability in the region.
It is currently working to establish restoration timelines, which will be communicated to clients.