U.S. Embassy in Tanzania announces temporary closure amid internet outage

U.S embassy closed.[File, Standard]

The American Embassy in Tanzania has temporarily shut its doors to the public for two days, citing a widespread internet outage that has impacted multiple East African nations.

 “Due to degraded network service nationwide, the embassy will remain closed to the public,” an embassy spokesperson announced.

All consular appointments set for May 14 and 15 have been postponed, with new dates to be confirmed. 

Despite the closure, the embassy will continue to provide visa collection services and attend to emergency cases involving American citizens.

The development comes in the wake of a persistent internet disruption that began on Sunday, affecting Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

 Kenya’s leading telecom provider, Safaricom, alerted its customers to the crisis, stating, “Dear customers, we are experiencing slow speeds due to multiple cuts on the undersea cable. Our upstream provider is working to have this resolved.”

The Communication Authority of Kenya issued a statement yesterday, cautioning that the issue might persist in the coming days. 

The Authority urged service providers to explore alternative routes for their traffic. 

“The recovery process has commenced, but intermittency and slow speeds may persist before services are fully restored,” said David Mugonyi, the Authority’s director-general. 

 “The Authority has directed service providers to secure alternative routes for their traffic and is monitoring the situation closely,” he added.