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A fibre-optic link into Somalia via Kenya was opened in 2013

Somalia’s government says an ongoing internet outage is costing the country $10m (£7.7m) each day.

The outage affects southern Somalia, and was caused by damage to an undersea fibre-optic cable more than two weeks ago.

Somali Post and Telecommunications Minister Abdi Anshur Hassan has called the incident a “major disaster”, costing Somalia “more than $130m”.

He said the cable was being fixed and service will be restored “this week”.

Cyber cafe culture

Many Somalis rely on internet cafes rather than 3G or satellite internet

Internet usage is low in Somalia, with an estimated penetration rate of 1.6 per cent in 2014 according to the International Telecommunication Union.

That same year, 3G mobile phone services in southern Somalia were cut off because of a threat from Islamist militants and the ban has stayed in place ever since.

Satellite internet is available, but users complain that it is costly and slow.

Internet cafes have therefore proved popular in towns and cities, as they provide more reliable connectivity.

Source: BBC News