MainOne, a submarine cable company, has invoked force majeure due to the ongoing disruption caused by Thursday’s undersea cable cut, affecting internet services in Nigeria and neighboring West African countries.
Preliminary investigations suggest seismic activity on the seabed led to the cable break, although more data will be gathered during the repair process.
The company declared force majeure after testing the cable system and assessing technical data pointing to underwater activity as the likely cause.
A force majeure event, defined as circumstances beyond reasonable control, such as riots or earthquakes, enables service providers to suspend contractual obligations during disruptions.
Despite this, MainOne strives to restore services and expedite repairs, collaborating with the Atlantic Cable Maintenance and Repair Agreement (ACMA).
Repair operations entail identifying a vessel, retrieving necessary spares, sailing to the fault location, pulling the affected cable section onto the ship for splicing, inspecting and testing joints, and guiding the cable back to the seabed—a process estimated to take 1-2 weeks for repairs and an additional 2-3 weeks for transit.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) attributes the disruption, which affects millions of internet users, to cable cuts along the West African Coast, which impact major undersea cables like WACS, ACE, SAT3, and MainOne.
Similar disruptions have occurred on routes from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, affecting cables like Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), and Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE1), resulting in degraded services.
