Somalia has suffered heavy losses due to the disruption of Internet services, official said.

Post, Communications and Technology minister Abdi Anshur Hassan said the disruption was due to a damage to the Fibre-Optic link that was reportedly caused by a ship sailing to the port of Mogadishu.

“The economy has been losing $10 million per day since the damage occurred to the Fibre-Optic Internet,” said Mr Hassan.

“We estimate that the economy has lost about $130 million since the damage to the Fibre-Optic,” he added.

Worst affected

Mr Hassan explained that the southern and central regions were worst affected, further disclosing that only one Fibre-Optic line enters the region, hence the enormous losses whenever it suffered a damage.

He asserted that his ministry had formulated a communications legislation to help safeguard against future problems.

“The country needs a back-up system in case of future mishaps,” Mr Hassan said.

The problem

Following the damage to Fibre-Optic connection, communication companies resorted to the satellite to access the Internet. However, the remedy was weak and unable to cope with the huge demand.

Mr Hassan predicted that the problem would take about a week to resolve.

The northern regions like Somaliland and Puntland were connected to a separate Fibre-Optic, especially from neighbouring Djibouti.