Somalia has restored its internet connection after repairing a damaged undersea cable that was apparently cut by a commercial ship, said Hormuud Telkom’s official on Monday.
The outage according to the government cost the economy $10 million a day.
Islamist militant attacks dropped significantly during the outage that lasted more than three weeks, said Nur Bile,a police officer.
“There were almost no blasts in Mogadishu during the outage. Al Shabaab launches the attacks and the media spreads the news on the internet,” Bile said.
He said the police had uncovered three bombs planted in vehicles in the capital Mogadishu on Monday.
“The internet is now back and clients are using it,” said Adnan Ali, Hormuud’s media director.
Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman apologised to citizens on Tuesday for the outage, which hit all landline and mobile users apart from those with access to private satellite connections, and called for them to have back-up plans.
“We urge internet companies to have a backup so that people do not suffer another outage in the future,” he told Reuters.
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The lack of internet service also stranded patients who were seeking medical attention abroad as they couldn’t access online paperwork.
“The internet outage had my father stuck in Mogadishu. Now we can take him to India having received all medical paperwork via internet,” said Nur Hussein.
Al Shabaab wants to topple the Western-backed government and rule the country according to its strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
Reuters/ The Guardian
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