The US Embassy in Tanzania has announced a two-day closure due to an internet outage affecting several East African countries.
In a statement on X, the embassy stated that it had canceled all consular appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday and would reschedule them for a later date.
“Due to the current state of the internet in country, all consular appointments for tomorrow are cancelled. We will reschedule for a later date. The Consular section will be open only for emergency services tomorrow.”
However, it will remain accessible for visa collections and for handling emergency cases involving American citizens.
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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
The internet outage has persisted since Sunday morning, causing poor connectivity in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Metrics shared by internet monitoring group NetBlocks on Monday showed that Tanzania had been worst hit by the outage.
The patchy service results from faults in the under-sea cables that connect the region to the rest of the world through South Africa.