Ship's anchor accidentally slices internet cable cutting off access in six African countries



Claims the cables may have been sliced on purpose

A ship's anchor accidentally sliced an underwater internet cable, cutting off access to six African countries.

The incident happened as the vessel stopped in the wrong area as it waited to enter a port in Mombasa, Kenya.

The ship was dragging its anchor when it broke the 3,000 mile long fibre-optic cable on Saturday. It will take engineers three weeks to repair.



Internet cut: Workers haul part of the fibre optic cable to shore as it is laid in Mombasa in 2009

However, teams have already managed to restore 10 per cent of the cable's function so services are back up and running at slow speeds, the Wall Street Journal reported.



There are claims that the cable was intentionally sliced as three other cables were also cut in the Red Sea off the coast of Djibouti just days beforehand.



The broadband line severed last weekend goes from Mombasa to the United Arab Emirates and was laid in 2009.

The cable - which cost £83million - was half-funded by the Kenyan government and half by the private sector.

As well as supplying Kenya, the cable provides internet access to Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Juba, which is the capital of South Sudan.

Chris Wood, chief executive of the West Indian Ocean Cable company, told the Wall Street Journal: 'It's a very unusual situation. I believe these were accidental incidents, although more will be known when we bring the cables up from the sea bed.'

Since the cable was laid three years ago the number of internet users in Nairobi has soared from 1.8million to 3.1million - and it has helped drive growth in the area.

Google, Microsoft and Samsung have all opened offices in the area in recent years.



The broadband outage is expected to cost the Kenyan economy in the region of £300million and has led to calls for more internet cables to be laid.

Joel Tanui, manager of The East African Marine Systems company (Teams) who are responsible for the cable, told the Guardian: 'We wish to notify all our stakeholders of ongoing emergency repair works and apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience this may cause.