Internet has been shut down in Mogadishu and other regions in Central and Southern Somalia as from Sunday July 26. This is according to reports from local residents, NetBlocks internet and other sources that investigate digital rights, cyber security and internet governance.
The internet however is operating normally in Puntland and Somaliland. Both Puntland and Somaliland have their own submarine cables in Bosaso and Berbera respectively. The shutdown affects cellular and fixed line networks.
In a message from Hormuud Telcom, the world’s largest internet service provider, it apologized for the disruption in a press release and said the matter would be resolved soon. Hormuud Telcom in it’s press release informed the people that their internet service had been interrupted as from 10.00 AM East African Time on Sunday July 26.
The internet service provider said their early assessments suggested that the submarine cable had sustained a shunt fault after windy conditions had caused Somali shores of the Indian ocean to become very rough and turbulent. They assured that their maintenance team would troubleshoot the fault and get the service back to normal as soon as they could.
However, according to NetBlocks, their analysis has shown there was no indication of an international subsea cable outage impacting Somalia, and that occurrences of cable cuts that affect a single country’s internet connectivity for an extended period of time are exceptionally rare. NetBlocks internet observatory confirmed that internet had been cut across much of Somalia with connectivity below 30% and a higher impact on Mogadishu.
Most of the Country’s leading businesses and residential service providers are affected. Government sources indicated that the internet had been disabled by the Ministry of Communication as tensions are high in the Somali capital after the Prime Minister Khaire was dismissed by the parliament on 25th. The political climates are unclear due to the telecommunications blackout.
Mogadishu-Somalia
