Djibouti Telecom has announced plans to extend its regional subsea cable, Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1), southward along Africa’s east coast to expand connectivity, improve route diversity, and support growing digital demand.
Since becoming operational in 2021, the DARE1 cable system has connected Djibouti City with Bosaso and Mogadishu in Somalia, as well as Mombasa, Kenya, offering a capacity of 36Tbps across three fibre pairs along the Horn of Africa.
In this latest announcement, Djibouti Telecom revealed that the cable will be expanded with a new 3,200-3,500km link from Mombasa down to Mtunzini in South Africa. The project will also include branches to Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
Tanzania will feature two landing points in Dar es Salaam and Mtwara, Mozambique will have three in Nakala, Beira, and Maputo, while Madagascar will be served with two landing points at Mahajanga and Toliary.
Djibouti Telecom stated that the goal of this extension is to transform DARE1 into a comprehensive regional African cable, increasing capacity, reducing latency, and providing resilient route options for carriers, enterprise users, and cloud providers from East to Southern Africa.
Construction of the extension is scheduled to commence next year, with services expected to start in 2028. The existing DARE1 system is supported by Hormuud Telecom Somalia, Somtel International, and Telkom Kenya, highlighting regional collaboration to enhance connectivity infrastructure across the region.
