PRETORIA, March 14. /TASS/. A major Internet outage has occurred in South Africa due to a broken underwater cable, the SABC radio station reported.
According to the radio station, websites belonging to banks and numerous companies do not work in the country, and there is no access to the WhatsApp messenger. Currently, Microsoft Corporation is investigating the failure of its services in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. According to available information, the cable rupture occurred in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Cote d'Ivoire.
"There are currently many underwater cable failures between South Africa and Europe that are impacting South African network providers," said Byron Kennedy, a spokesman for Vodacom, one of the country's largest mobile operators. According to the radio station, South Africa, Kenya, India and the UK were hit the hardest.
Internet outages are also occurring in West and Central Africa. Those most affected by the accident are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and Niger.