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DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — The US Embassy in Tanzania has announced a temporary closure due to a significant internet outage that has impacted several East African countries.
The embassy confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that it would be shut to the public for two days, specifically affecting all consular services scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Due to degraded network service nationwide, the embassy will remain closed to the public. All consular appointments on May 14 & 15 will be cancelled and rescheduled to a later date. The consular section will be open as scheduled for visa pick up and for emergency American citizen…
— US Embassy Tanzania (@usembassytz) May 13, 2024
While routine appointments have been cancelled and postponed to a later date, the embassy clarified that it would remain open for visa collections and to address any emergency situations involving American citizens.
The ongoing internet disruption began on Sunday morning, with Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda all experiencing poor connectivity. According to internet monitoring group NetBlocks, Tanzania has been the most severely affected by the outage. Industry experts attribute the widespread service interruptions to faults in the under-sea cables which link the region to global networks via South Africa.
Service providers in the affected countries have reported slow internet speeds persisting into Monday, with ongoing efforts to fully resolve the connectivity issues.
