How The Gambia lost access to the Internet for more than 8 hours

On January 4, 2022, The Gambia experienced a country-wide internet outage lasting over 8 hours. This was due to "technical issues on the backup links" as explained by Gamtel, the main state-owned telecommunications company in the West African nation. The incident highlights the dependency of The Gambia's internet access on a single provider, Gamtel, and its reliance on terrestrial connectivity via Senegal due to unavailability of international internet connectivity through the ACE submarine cable. The outage also underscores the vulnerability of internet connectivity in many countries that rely on a single network path for their access. The Gambia Public Utilities Regulatory Authority is exploring options for a second fibre cable backup to ensure more reliable internet connectivity in the future.