Oracle‘s Dyn service have a research lab, who analyse information from the Internet. In the blog entry below, they look at the recent loss of connectivity on the ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) cable system. The cable cut occurred near Nouakchott, Mauritania.
This subsea cable links most of the countries on the western coast of Africa. For countries that have rely on a single connection, the only alternative is via satellite or to suffer an outage. Countries with multiple cable connections have a little more flexibility and resilience available to them when things like this occur.