Damage to an undersea cable off the African coast is exacerbating disruptions of internet services to the continent, impacting customers on the islands of Mauritius and Reunion.
Efforts to repair the South Africa-Far East (Safe) cable, which links Mauritius and Reunion to South Africa, India and Malaysia, have been put in motion, said Port Louis-based Mauritius Telecom in a statement on Friday.
The damage halted operations at SBM Bank (Mauritius), on what should have been a busy last Friday of the month. "Due to a technical problem with the internet gateway on the Safe submarine cable, some of our services, including our ATMs, point-of-sale terminal and cards, are currently experiencing a temporary unavailability," the lender said.
The break, which is limiting internet services to the islands, highlights the vulnerability of critical communications infrastructure. It comes at a time when several other major internet cables are already damaged off the continent's west coast and in the Red Sea.
' READ: What felled Microsoft services in SA when subsea cables broke"Services of local and international operators which are members of the related consortium have been disrupted," said Mauritius Telecom, adding that internet traffic is being redirected to other submarine cables. Kamlesh Bhuckory, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP
