EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System)
Active10,000 km submarine cable system, ready for service }}.
Key facts
- Status
- Active
- Ready for service
- }}
- Length
- 10,000 km
- Design capacity
- more than 10 Tbit/s
Landing points
- Port Sudan, Sudan, Port Sudan — Sudan
- Massawa, Eritrea, Massawa — Eritrea
- Djibouti City, Djibouti, Djibouti City — Djibouti
- Mogadishu, Somalia, Mogadishu — Somalia
- Mombasa, Kenya, Mombasa — Kenya
- Moroni, Comoros, Moroni — Comoros
- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam — Tanzania
- Toliary, Madagascar, Toliary — Madagascar
- Maputo, Mozambique, Maputo — Mozambique
- Mtunzini, South Africa }}, Mtunzini — South Africa
Overview
EASSy — the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System — runs approximately 10,000 km along the eastern seaboard of Africa, threading together a string of nations from Sudan in the north to South Africa in the south. The system is designed to carry more than 10 Tbit/s, making it one of the higher-capacity cables serving the region.
Route and Landing Points
The cable follows the African coastline in a largely unbroken arc, touching land at Port Sudan in Sudan; Massawa in Eritrea; Djibouti City in Djibouti; Mogadishu in Somalia; Mombasa in Kenya; Moroni in the Comoros; Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; Toliary in Madagascar; Maputo in Mozambique; and Mtunzini in South Africa. That spread of ten landing points gives EASSy an unusually broad geographic footprint for a single African cable system, reaching island territories as well as mainland nations across the full length of the coast.
Strategic Significance
The east African coastline has historically depended on a limited number of cable systems, and the gaps in connectivity — particularly across Somalia and the smaller Indian Ocean island states — have long constrained bandwidth availability and pricing. EASSy directly addresses that topology by providing an integrated path that does not require traffic to be routed through distant exchange points. For landlocked countries served by terrestrial links into the EASSy landing stations, the system functions as a critical gateway to international internet capacity.
Ownership and Build
Ownership and construction details are not publicly documented in available records. The cable is active and carries live traffic.
Regional Context
EASSy sits alongside other east African cable systems that have progressively built redundancy into a coastline once served by very little capacity. Its combination of length, landing diversity and headline design capacity positions it as a significant element of the regional submarine network.