The US Embassy in Tanzania has been forced to close for two days due to a widespread internet outage affecting several East African countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
The embassy announced the closure citing degraded network service nationwide, and cancelled all consular appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday, rescheduling them for a later date.
“Due to degraded network service nationwide, the embassy will remain closed to the public. All consular appointments on May 14 & 15 will be cancelled and rescheduled to a later date,” read the statement in part.
Despite the closure, the embassy remains accessible for visa collections and emergency cases involving American citizens.
“The consular section will be open as scheduled for visa pick up and for emergency American citizen cases,” added the U.S embassy.
The internet outage, which began on Sunday morning, has caused poor connectivity in the East African region with Tanzania being the worst affected, according to data shared by internet monitoring group NetBlocks.
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The cause of the outage has been attributed to faults in the undersea cables that connect the region to the rest of the world through South Africa.
Safaricom Issues Statement Over Internet Outage
In Kenya, several users raised concerns over the slow internet speed experienced from Sunday, May 12, which in turn prompted leading mobile service provider Safaricom to issue a statement addressing the matter.
Safaricom in a statement on May 12, attributed the poor internet connection to an outage of the undersea cables that deliver internet traffic in and out of the country.
“We have experienced an outage on one of the undersea cables that deliver internet traffic in and out of the country,” said Safaricom.
Reassuring its customers, the mobile service provider said that it had activated measures to resolve the issue and keep their customers connected as they wait for full restoration of the cable.
However, the telco warned that Kenyans might still experience reduced internet speed.
“We have since activated redundancy measures to minimize service interruption and keep you connected as we await the full restoration of the cable,” the Telco giant noted.
“You may, however, experience reduced internet speeds. We thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Communication Authority of Kenya Issues Statement
The Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) issued a statement on 13 May, urging all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to secure alternative routes for their traffic in response to the ongoing internet disruption in the country.
This move comes after the Authority received reports of intermittent data outages and traffic congestion on the submarine cable internet traffic flow into the country on May 12.
The directive aims to ensure that incoming and internet connectivity remains available, with service providers such as Safaricom Plc, Telkom Kenya, Airtel Kenya, and Jamii Telecommunications Limited among those affected.
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“The Authority has directed service providers to take proactive steps to secure alternative routes for their traffic and is monitoring the situation closely to ensure that incoming and outbound internet connectivity is available,” the statement read in part.
The CA also noted that it had identified a deep-sea fiber cut at the Mtunzini teleport station in South Africa as the cause of the disruption, which has impacted several submarine cables serving Kenya, including Seacom and the East African Submarine System (Eassy)
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