Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS): latency up to 9.2× normal, 5 Aug 2026
What we measured
| Cable | Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS) |
| Segment | Kribi, CM → Lagos, NG |
| Detected | 2026-08-05 09:32 UTC |
| Resolved | 2026-08-05 11:32 UTC |
| Duration | 2h 0m |
| Observed latency | 20.6 ms |
| Baseline | 20.1 ms · 9.15× |
| Increase | +815% |
| Severity | critical |
Who is affected
Countries where Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS) comes ashore, how much of their submarine diversity this cable represents, and what our measurements into them show.
| Country | Dependence on this cable | Other submarine cables | What the measurements show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameroon resilience index: 58 · moderate |
1 of 5 cables (20% of submarine diversity) | Ceiba-2, SAT-3/WASC, South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) +1 more | no measurement today; median 216 ms over 30 days (18 routes) |
| Nigeria resilience index: 67 · moderate |
1 of 8 cables (13% of submarine diversity) | 2Africa, Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), Equiano +4 more | median 212 ms today vs 168 ms over 30 days (123 routes) - slower |
Dependence is structural (share of the country's submarine cables), not a traffic share: real traffic distribution across cables is not public.
Vessels nearby at the time of the incident
No vessel activity was seen within 5 km of the cable route in the window from 48 hours before to 6 hours after the start (by AIS; vessels with transmitters off are not visible).
Path analysis
Traffic kept the same route. Latency rose without a visible path change, which points at congestion or a fault on the existing route rather than a reroute.
Cross-probe verdict. Too few independent vantage points were watching this endpoint to reach a cross-probe verdict.
Timeline
- Alert 2026080501: critical - ratio 9.15x
- Alert #165 improving: 2/3 consecutive OK
- Alert #165 resolved: RTT 20.61ms (baseline 20.08ms), 3 consecutive OK
Detection method
Latency is sampled continuously from our probe network. An alert opens when round-trip time to a monitored endpoint holds above its rolling baseline, and closes automatically once it returns. Full method is described on the methodology page.