Mitigating potential disruptions on Internet cables

In Africa Group A of the IGCBP10 there was general consensus that there should be measures to mitigate risks associated with disruptions on Internet cables.

One of the participants stated that it was important to understand the problem first in order to establish appropriate countermeasures. Consequently, individual causes of disruption of internet
cables would have different solutions. Some of the examples of disruptions
include those caused by "acts of God", caused by the physical
(artificial) vandalism of the communication equipment, software errors, among
others. Each of this requires a different set of measures. Another participant
recommended that deployment of redundant links should be adopted as best
practice.

There was a proposal to pursue legal protection of cables following the Australian example where cables carrying the bulk of the countries traffic are considered critical infrastructure and protected by the regulator, Australian
Communications and Media Authority.
A participant agreed that the submarine cables landing on the East African coast
and deployment of terrestrial fibre optic cables, regardless of their
ownership, should be protected as critical national resources.