Aden-Djibouti

Overview

Aden-Djibouti is a short regional submarine cable connecting the Republic of Djibouti and Yemen across the Gulf of Aden. Spanning 269 km, it serves the narrow maritime corridor between the Horn of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula, linking the two countries directly by fiber-optic infrastructure.

Route and Landings

In Djibouti, the cable lands at Djibouti City, the country's capital and primary telecommunications hub. In Yemen, the cable lands at Aden, the major port city on the Gulf of Aden coast. These two landing points define the cable's short cross-gulf route.

Ownership and Operators

Aden-Djibouti is owned by a consortium of five telecommunications carriers: Djibouti Telecom, Orange, Sparkle, Tata Communications, and TeleYemen. Djibouti Telecom is the national operator of Djibouti, while TeleYemen is Yemen's national telecommunications provider. Orange and Sparkle are major European carriers — Orange being the French incumbent operator and Sparkle the international wholesale arm of Telecom Italia. Tata Communications is a global network services provider based in India.

Technical Profile

No capacity, fiber pair count, or supplier information is available for this cable.

Status and Timeline

Aden-Djibouti entered service in 1994, making it one of the earlier submarine cable systems in the Gulf of Aden corridor. No end-of-service date has been announced.

Regional Context

The Gulf of Aden corridor has seen substantial submarine cable investment in subsequent decades. Among cables sharing landings in this corridor are the Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) system, which serves both Djibouti and Yemen and entered service in 2017, as well as longer-haul systems terminating in Djibouti such as the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy, 2010), Europe India Gateway (EIG, 2011), 2Africa (2024), and the forthcoming SeaMeWe-6 (planned for 2026). FALCON, which serves Yemen, entered service in 2006. Aden-Djibouti predates all of these regional systems and remains the most geographically compact link in the corridor at 269 km. Recent ping measurements across the cable show an average round-trip latency of 39.6 ms over 58 tests conducted in the last 60 days, with a best recorded value of 0.6 ms.

Strategic Role

By directly connecting Djibouti City and Aden, Aden-Djibouti provides a bilateral fiber path across the Gulf of Aden between Djibouti and Yemen. Its short span and early commissioning date mean it occupies a distinct place among the Gulf of Aden's cable assets, offering a dedicated link between two landing points that also appear on several larger, intercontinental systems.