Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) Cable

Overview

The Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) Cable is a short regional submarine cable spanning approximately 720 km and connecting Cape Verde and Senegal. The system provides a direct link between the Cape Verde archipelago and the West African mainland, serving a relatively compact corridor across the eastern Atlantic.

Route and Landings

In Cape Verde, the cable lands at Praia, the country's capital island of Santiago. In Senegal, the cable lands at Dakar, the country's main coastal city. These two landing points form the entirety of the system's route.

Ownership and Operators

The SHARE Cable is owned by Agence De L'informatique de l'Etat, a Senegalese state body responsible for government information technology infrastructure. The single-owner structure places oversight of the cable directly within the public sector.

Status and Timeline

The SHARE Cable entered service in 2023 and has been operational for approximately three years. No end-of-service date is currently recorded for the system.

Regional Context

The Cape Verde–Senegal corridor is served by several other submarine cables of varying scale. Senegal is also a landing point for the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable, which entered service in 2012, and the 2Africa cable, which reached service in 2024, both of which are far longer systems operating on intercontinental scales. Cape Verde connects to the EllaLink cable, ready for service in 2021, as well as three generations of the Cabo Verde Telecom Domestic Submarine Cable (Phase 1 in 1997, Phase 2 in 2002, Phase 3 in 2011). The SHARE Cable, at 720 km, is considerably shorter than these peers, reflecting its focused point-to-point function between the two countries.

Measured performance over the last 60 days, based on 72 ping tests conducted through this cable, shows an average round-trip latency of 97.4 ms, with a best recorded round-trip of 76.2 ms.

Strategic Role

The SHARE Cable establishes a dedicated submarine connection between Dakar and Praia, linking Senegal's mainland to the Cape Verde islands. At 720 km, it operates as a compact bilateral system between two countries that are otherwise served primarily by larger, multi-country cables with different geographic priorities. Its state ownership through Agence De L'informatique de l'Etat positions it within Senegal's public digital infrastructure framework rather than a commercial consortium arrangement.