Nacala, Mozambique

Nacala, Mozambique: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Nacala is a city situated on the northern coast of Mozambique, positioned within the southwestern indentation of Fernao Veloso Bay. As a coastal city on the Indian Ocean, Nacala serves as a landing point for two submarine cables, connecting Mozambique to a wide range of countries across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. The combination of cables landing here enables both regional East African connectivity and broader intercontinental links stretching to West Africa and the Arabian Gulf.

The two cables at Nacala represent a significant portion of Mozambique's submarine cable infrastructure. Among the most notable is 2Africa, one of the longest submarine cable systems in the world, which brings Nacala into a network spanning multiple continents. Alongside it, the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE 1) positions Nacala within a regional East African and Indian Ocean corridor, linking the city to key neighbours along the eastern seaboard and island nations.

Cables Landing at Nacala

2Africa is a submarine cable system stretching approximately 45,000 km, with a ready-for-service date of 2024. This cable connects Nacala to an extensive list of countries including Angola, Bahrain, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Djibouti. The sheer geographic reach of 2Africa means that Nacala is integrated into a system that bridges the east and west coasts of Africa as well as the Middle East, providing intercontinental routing options that extend well beyond the immediate region.

Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE 1) spans approximately 4,854 km and reached its ready-for-service date in 2021. This cable connects Nacala to Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and South Africa, in addition to another landing point within Mozambique itself. DARE 1 serves a distinctly regional role, linking Nacala into the East African coastal network and to the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Its connections to both South Africa and Djibouti position Nacala along the full length of Africa's eastern submarine cable corridor.

Regional Context

Within Mozambique's submarine cable landscape, Nacala ranks second among the country's three landing points by cable count. Maputo, Mozambique's primary landing point, hosts four cables, while Beira hosts a single cable. Nacala's two cables place it in the middle tier, giving the northern coast of Mozambique a meaningful presence in the country's overall submarine connectivity.

Network Role

Nacala functions as a dual-cable landing point, which distinguishes it from single-terminus locations such as Beira. The combination of DARE 1's regional East African and Indian Ocean reach with 2Africa's intercontinental scale means Nacala is integrated into both short-haul intra-African connectivity and long-distance links extending to the Arabian Gulf and West Africa. This pairing enables route diversity that a single-cable terminus cannot offer.

In the broader submarine cable graph of eastern Africa, Nacala's position on the northern Mozambican coast fills a geographic gap between the major hubs further north and the more densely served southern landing points, ensuring that northern Mozambique has direct access to multiple international cable routes rather than relying solely on terrestrial or indirect connections.