18 June 2021

A new submarine cable that connects Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya is now active after more than five years of work. The 4,900km DARE-1 cable is equipped with the latest generation of optical fibre, courtesy of a consortium made up of  Djibouti Telecom, Somtel, Hormuud Telecom and Telkom Kenya. They have invested a total amount of over US$81m. DARE stands for Djibouti Africa Regional Express.

“Under the leadership of our president Ismaël Omar Guelleh, this is a new step in our government’s strategy to make Djibouti a hub for international cable systems,” said minister of communication, posts and telecommunications, Radwan Abdillahi Bahdon. “The Minister goes on to say that “the landing and hosting of more than eight cables in Djibouti has given our country the precious distinction of being the most connected country and a technological centre for sub-Saharan Africa”. DARE-1 is a new low-latency cable system aimed at bringing content closer to end-users in Africa, providing the region with much-needed internet capacity and access to global cloud computing services. The cable has a capacity of 36 terabits and will connect east Africa and is the largest cable ever built in the region in terms of capacity.

“We are very pleased that the DARE-1 project was completed on time despite the challenges and global restrictions caused by Covid-19,” added Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, director general of Djibouti Telecom. “We fully understand the importance of bringing increased connectivity to east Africa.”