Houthi Veto Of 2Africa Construction

Many have been wondering why the 2Africa segment from Kenya to Marseille via the Red Sea remains unfinished. It turns out that the Houthi rebels refuse to bless the project or guarantee the safety of any cable ship laying 2Africa through the Red Sea. The Houthis did permit the AAE1 repair because the cable lands in Yemen and hence the repair was in their self interest. See the AAE1 map below. But 2Africa does not land in Yemen, hence no cooperation. As we all know, a Houthi missile hit the Rubymar last year in the Red Sea, crew dropped anchor and then abandonned ship. But the ship drifted 31 kilometers dragging its anchor behind it. Seacom, AAE1, and Eassy were all damaged.

This could be a big problem going forward. Lots of cables including SWM6, Blue-Raman and others are supposed to snake up the Red Sea either to Egypt or Saudi Arabia/Jordan/Israel. This is a network planning nightmare of first rank.


The current capacity shortages on many global routes are likely to get a lot worse because these new systems are the saviors of the global Internet.

#subseacables #internetinfrastructure #houthis #2africa





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