Broadband cable linking Africa to Europe repaired

African telecoms cable operator Seacom said it had repaired a fault with a broadband cable that hit internet traffic across much of the continent on Thursday.

Seacom's cable runs along the east African coastline linking South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Mozambique with Europe and Asia.

"The Seacom terrestrial network was successfully repaired," the company said in a statement on its website.

Seacom, a 14,000 km-long cable sunk into the ocean bed, is one of five major undersea cables that have had a dramatic impact in accelerating Africa's access to international bandwidth in the past five years.

South African mobile phone group Vodacom, one of the users of the fibre optic cable, said its network suffered slower internet browsing speeds on Thursday.

Other users of the cable include Kenya's Safaricom, South Africa's MTN Group and UAE's Etisalat.