Telecoms provider SEACOM suffered an outage on its subsea cable system over the weekend.

The disruption is affecting the segment of the cable that runs from Mombasa (Kenya) to Zafarana (Egypt), SEACOM said in a statement.

According to the company, although the outage has impacted some of its clients’ businesses across East and Southern Africa, SEACOM has “been working diligently to ensure the continuity of its services”.

Initial assessments suggest that the disruption to the subsea cable occurred within the vicinity of the Red Sea, and other cables in the area also appear to have been impacted.

The company said it was unable to confirm the cause of the disruption but was working to assess the feasibility of the repair in the region.

“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,” said the company.

Nonetheless, SEACOM says it continues to carry traffic on its own cable between Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, for both transmission and IP services.

The statement reads: “All other IP-based services destined for Europe and other regions were automatically rerouted via SEACOM’s alternative routes on Equiano, PEACE and WACS cable systems and supported by its diverse terrestrial infrastructure, ensuring its clients remain operational with some latency in their internet communications.”

SEACOM says it provided customers with a cautionary alert on 5 February that any disruptions to the cable system could be impacted by delays in repair operations, due to the instability of the area.

“The team is currently working towards restoration timelines and will communicate these plans with our clients,” said the company.