SEACOM, a telecoms provider, has cautioned that cable repairs to damaged undersea cables in the Red Sea may take longer than expected, because permissions to maintain impacted areas will take eight weeks to be given.

In a statement released today, the pan-African telecom operator stated that its repair partner, E-marine, has taken pre-emptive actions this week by asking for repair permits from the necessary authorities.

“As part of the regulatory process, we anticipate that permitting could take up to eight weeks to obtain. While we remain optimistic that the cable repairs will proceed as planned during second quarter, as previously communicated, we are mindful of the ongoing unrest in the region,” said the company.

It added: “This situation may introduce unforeseen challenges that could potentially impact our repair timeline. We are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to keep all stakeholders updated on the progress of the repair operations as events unfold.”

On 24 February, SEACOM reported an outage on its subsea cable system. Associated Press has said that three undersea cables were cut because of a sunken ship, attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels operating in the area.

Dr. Thomas King, CTO at global internet exchange DE-CIX, commented on the damage to undersea cables in the Red Sea yesterday. He said: "According to the information we have, the cause of the damage was the anchor of a freighter targeted by the Houthi rebels.

"At some time, the crew abandoned the ship and dropped anchor to prevent the unmanned ship from drifting out of control. Unfortunately, the anchor failed to hold, and the drifting wreck dragged it across the bottom, rupturing the three damaged cables before the ship sank.”

In a statement, King said: "One of our data pathways from Asia to Europe makes use of the Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1) cable, one of three that were damaged."

SEACOM said: “The location of the cable break is significant due to its geopolitical sensitivity and ongoing tensions, making it a challenging environment for maintenance and repair operations.”

According to SEACOM, the disruption affected the cable portion running from Mombasa (Kenya) to Zafarana (Egypt).

Even though the outage affected some of its clients, SEACOM says it has been working to ensure the continuity of its services.