Africa Coast to Europe (Ace) subsea cable, runs along the west coast of Africa between France and South Africa. This crucial cable of 17,000 km connects 19 countries in Europe and Africa.
Last month, four undersea cables snapped off the coast of the Congo. Reports indicate that the West Africa Cable System (WACS), Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) subsea cable, Angolan domestic festoon system, and the South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) cables snapped. The breakage of the cables was attributed to rockfall in the Congo Canyon.
Recently, the French cable-laying vessel Léon Thévenin has been stationed at the ACE repair cable grounds, and repair work is currently ongoing.
Bayobab is one of 20 companies that invested in the ACE cables. A statement from the company said:
“We understand the critical importance of these undersea cable systems for international data transmission and connectivity across multiple regions.”
ACE Break Causes Network Disruptions
The four subsea cables are crucial for providing internet services to Africa. Of the countries listed as having landing points for the ACE Submarine Cable, 10 had significant disruptions. The most significant, and longest-lasting disruption was seen in Mauritania, with a complete outage lasting for nearly 48 hours.
Openserve, MTN, Vodacom, and Cloudflare reported network issues after the cable snaps. Therefore, they mitigated the disruptions by re-routing traffic onto other cables.
The Léon Thévenin completed repairs on the WACS cable on the 5th of September. The French vessel is the only vessel authorised to repair that segment of the cable. After the repairs, traffic was rerouted back to the WACS cable and the countries served were reconnected.
The ACE submarine cable serves the following countries: France, Portugal, the Canary Islands (Spain), Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mali, and Niger (ACE Phase I), and South Africa.
