Entire country goes offline after cable in Atlantic Ocean gets damaged

Representational image courtesy Pixabay

The only country in the world which could not access the internet to get updates on a damaged undersea cable in Atlantic Ocean was Mauritania. It was because of the damage itself that the country on the western coast of Africa lost internet connection for two days in what is being highlighted as the vulnerability of undersea internet cables.

According to a report in the UK's The Independent, a part of the 17,000-kilometer cable system running from France to South Africa got damaged. The system provides internet access to 22 countries and while surfers in most of the countries on the western coast experienced outages, Mauritania was the worst hit with lines being down for 48 hours.

Called the submarine cable from a company called African Coast to Europe (ACE), the system is the sole internet provider in Mauritania. The country plunged to digital darkness when the fault occurred. Other countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, Benin and Ivory Coast also suffered although to varying extent.

Although the fault was rectified eventually, initial investigations have revealed that a fishing vessel may have ruptured the line when it lowered its machinery into the sea. The matter is being probed further.