Yas Comoros secures US$27mn IFC loan to expand broadband and 5G services

Yas Comoros, a subsidiary of AXIAN Telecom, has announced a new partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to fuel the next stage of digital development across the Union of the Comoros

This collaboration will support the expansion of mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure, promoting economic advancement and greater digital inclusion throughout the islands.

Under the terms of the agreement, IFC will provide a €25 million loan (approx. US$26.75mn) to accelerate infrastructure rollouts, boost network quality, and improve inter-island connectivity. This builds on the IFC’s initial €13 million (approx. US$13.91mn) loan provided in 2019, which supported Yas Comoros’ network launch after being awarded the country’s second telecom licence. That earlier loan, IFC’s first private sector investment in Comoros, was fully repaid in June 2025.

Now undergoing rapid expansion, Yas Comoros is the fastest-growing brand within the AXIAN Telecom group. This new funding will enable the company to meet increasing demand for data services, improve service standards, and invest in advanced technologies such as 5G, fibre to the home (FTTH), and fibre to the office (FTTO), with rollout beginning in 2025.

“This loan is an opportunity not only to modernise our network but also to invest in advanced technologies from 2025, including 5G rollout, FTTH, and FTTO, and thus accelerate the digitisation of the Union of the Comoros over the next five years,” commented Christophe Oliver, CEO of Yas Comoros. “We are committed to delivering improved connectivity solutions across the board, for consumers, SMEs, corporates, and public sector institutions, in alignment with the government’s digital vision,” he continued.

“This partnership with AXIAN Telecom marks a pivotal step in IFC’s commitment to accelerating digital transformation in Comoros and across Africa. This partnership not only supports the country’s digital ambitions, but also unlocks pathways for innovation, financial inclusion, and economic opportunity for all Comorians, especially women, youth, and rural communities,” said Mehita Fanny, IFC country manager for Comoros, Eswatini, Madagascar, Mozambique and Seychelles. “Investing in digital infrastructure is central to IFC’s strategy to foster sustainable development, empower local entrepreneurs, and ensure that no one is left behind in the digital age.”

Commenting on the development, minister of post, communications, digital economy and transparency of Comoros, Oumouri Mmadi Hassani said, “This loan of 25 million EUR granted to Yas Comoros by the IFC represents a key milestone for the telecommunications sector in the Comoros. It will contribute to the expansion and modernization of digital infrastructures, thus providing better connectivity to our entire population, particularly in rural areas. It will also support key projects to stimulate innovation and digital inclusion, enhancing the competitiveness of our businesses and contributing to the country's digital transformation. This is a strong commitment to a sustainable digital future, which will promote economic growth and the well-being of Comorians. We are pleased about the effective involvement of the IFC, which, through this financing, contributes significantly to the development of Comoros' digital economy with unparalleled transparency.”

Stefano Resi of Nokia discusses South Africa’s data centre growth and regional digital leadership

Stefano Resi, head of data centre sales for Middle East and Africa at Nokia, sharing insights into South Africa’s leadership role in Africa’s evolving data centre ecosystem, its unique advantages, current challenges and the road ahead for digital infrastructure across the continent

South Africa has long been a digital powerhouse on the continent, but as infrastructure demand accelerates, its role is expanding in new and significant ways.

With more than 30 million sq km, 54 countries and over 1.5 billion people, Africa represents a complex digital ecosystem—not a singular market. It is home to rising data centre activity in Nigeria, Kenya, Djibouti, Morocco and Egypt, but South Africa continues to stand apart.

According to Stefano Resi, “South Africa stands out because it is the only country connecting the two oceans and it serves as the gateway to the entire sub-Saharan region.”

But it is not just about geography. “Location alone does not define leadership,” Resi explained. “What sets the country apart is its mature legal framework, education system, and accessible business environment. These factors all contribute to an ecosystem primed for digital innovation.”

South Africa’s position as a key landing point for major undersea cables such as 2Africa and Equiano enhances its connectivity, while cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town are becoming magnets for hyperscale and colocation developments.

“These factors combine to make South Africa a fertile environment for large-scale data centre investment,” added Resi. “Already, Johannesburg and Cape Town are hosting an expanding constellation of high-capacity facilities.”

Data centre design has also evolved. While earlier models focused on simple storage and compute, modern facilities are driven by hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. Traffic now flows heavily within the data centre (east-west), requiring intelligent switching, dynamic architecture and automation.

This transformation aligns with the rise of latency-sensitive services such as augmented reality, industrial IoT and autonomous systems—services that demand a new kind of infrastructure.

“South Africa, with its dispersed urban centres and vast geography, is uniquely positioned to build a tiered architecture of core and edge data centres,” Resi explained. “These smaller edge facilities will be critical to delivering low-latency services to end users across the country.”

Yet, power instability remains a persistent challenge. Data centres consume vast amounts of electricity, and South Africa’s energy volatility poses a threat.

“Power is the Achilles heel of the digital (r)evolution in South Africa,” noted Resi. “However, this challenge can become an opportunity by accelerating the adoption of green energy sources. There needs to be a national-level commitment to energy stability if we are to meet future AI-driven demand.”

The industry must also prepare for the impact of AI. Unlike traditional workloads, AI applications require new cooling, hardware and networking standards.

“AI will reshape how we design data centres,” concluded Resi. “Inference and learning workloads place different demands on hardware, cooling, layout and obviously new network design and specifications.”

He believes South Africa will remain a central pillar in Africa’s digital transformation. “In a first phase by providing directly the data centre infrastructure for less digitalized countries, however in a second phase, when these countries will be accelerating their digital path, South Africa will continue to be the Hub and the guiding reference for the continent’s digital Agenda.”

Vertiv introduces CoolChip CDU range to boost AI, HPC cooling across EMEA data centres. (Image source: Vertiv)

Vertiv has announced the expansion of its CoolChip CDU product line with the launch of three new models—CoolChip CDU 70, CoolChip CDU 100, and CoolChip CDU 600—across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa

These direct-to-chip liquid cooling solutions strengthen Vertiv’s offering in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. The CoolChip CDU 600 will be unveiled for the first time in EMEA at the Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes this week.

“As workloads continue to drive higher rack densities and cooling demands, customers need liquid cooling solutions that adapt to their unique deployment strategies, whether retrofitting an existing environment or scaling a new build,” said Sam Bainborough, vice-president, EMEA thermal business at Vertiv. “The CoolChip CDU family offers flexible, scalable solutions that simplify deployment and support long-term growth. By reducing integration complexity and adapting to a range of data centre environments, these CDUs help organisations scale liquid cooling more efficiently.”

Why liquid cooling?

The new models are designed for both retrofit and greenfield environments and include in-rack and row-based configurations with liquid-to-air and liquid-to-liquid technology options. These systems provide scalable and flexible liquid cooling solutions to meet growing capacity requirements and support the wider adoption of liquid cooling.

The CoolChip CDU range forms part of Vertiv’s broader liquid cooling portfolio and the 360AI suite, which integrates power, cooling, and services to address the unique demands of AI infrastructure. Supported by global liquid cooling services that include design, installation, commissioning, fluid management, and maintenance, the portfolio accommodates a broad set of use cases, from upgrading existing sites to deploying high-density AI and HPC clusters in new facilities.

The CoolChip CDU 70 is a liquid-to-air in-row unit that enables a quick and cost-effective introduction of liquid cooling in both new and retrofitted data centres. It leverages existing thermal infrastructure, making it suitable for facilities aiming to adopt liquid cooling with minimal disruption. With a cooling capacity of up to 70 kW, the system is engineered for agility and scalability, reducing secondary fluid network complexity and overall infrastructure footprint. Its integrated controller enables real-time monitoring, group control, and communication between units for coordinated performance and streamlined management across racks.

The CoolChip CDU 100 delivers high-performance, liquid-to-liquid in-rack cooling in a compact 4U design, making it ideal for managing dense workloads in individual racks. This model allows data centre operators to roll out or expand liquid cooling one rack at a time, which is particularly useful for AI pilots or incremental scaling without major infrastructure changes. Offering up to 100 kW of cooling, the system includes a large-surface heat exchanger for low approach temperatures and features such as an integrated controller for monitoring and control, precise ±1°C temperature regulation, fluid filtration, and separation between facility and IT fluid loops for secure and efficient operation.

The CoolChip CDU 600 is a liquid-to-liquid in-row unit delivering 600 kW of cooling capacity, tailored for high-density AI and HPC applications in hyperscale and colocation environments. Its modular design supports in-row deployment with top or bottom piping options and optional internal manifolds, enabling faster planning and implementation. With redundant pumps, advanced temperature and fluid quality monitoring, and deployment flexibility, the CDU 600 is built to offer the performance, reliability, and transparency needed to scale liquid cooling in demanding IT environments.

In Nigeria, the main targets included telecommunications resellers and computing infrastructure providers. (Image source: NETSCOUT)

West Africa’s DDoS threat landscape was dominated by Nigeria and Mali, according to NETSCOUT’s Threat Intelligence Report for July to December 2024, which analyses global attack trends and techniques

Nigeria faced 1,716 attacks in the latter half of 2024, a notable decline from 2,721 incidents in the first six months. Meanwhile, Mali saw a dramatic surge, with attacks soaring from 115 in the first half to 1,637 in the second half of the year.

“Web search portals and all other information services bore the brunt of attacks in Mali, with an astounding average duration of 1,197 minutes per incident,” said Bryan Hamman, NETSCOUT’s regional director for Africa. “This was followed by wired telecommunications carriers, which was also the most targeted industry at a global level during the same period, with more than 2.1 million incidents.”

In Nigeria, the main targets included telecommunications resellers and computing infrastructure providers. Interestingly, beauty salons appeared among the top ten sectors attacked, alongside wired telecommunications carriers, commercial banks, used merchandise retailers, tyre dealers, and household electronics wholesalers. “This shows once again how threat actors adapt their strategies accordingly within different countries to target those industries that are strong in individual sovereign territories,” Hamman explained.

Nigeria also experienced some of the most complex DDoS campaigns in the region, with up to 22 different vendors involved in a single attack, primarily using TCP, DNS amplification, and ICMP flood (Ping flood) methods.

Liberia ranked next with 1,189 attacks, slightly fewer than the 1,515 reported earlier in 2024. The country’s computer systems design services sector was heavily targeted, suffering 360 attacks over six months. DNS amplification was the dominant attack vector, closely followed by STUN amplification.

Ghana recorded a sharp decline in attacks in the second half of 2024, falling to 917 from 4,753 earlier in the year. The ICT sector remained most targeted, including web search portals and information services (317 attacks), wired telecommunications carriers (43), and computing infrastructure providers. Notably, footwear manufacturers were third, enduring 14 attacks during the period.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo entered NETSCOUT’s rankings for the first time, coming in fifth with 879 attacks. Hamman noted, “While the most significant attack peaked at a modest 0.74 Gbps, the complexity was notable – with up to 15 vectors used in a single attack.” Computing infrastructure providers bore the brunt, though one satellite telecommunications attack lasted an exhausting 689 minutes.

Though Cameroon was not the most targeted country with 811 incidents, nor did it experience the most complex attacks, it recorded the highest bandwidth attack in the region at 200.43 Gbps – surpassing Nigeria’s 148.77 Gbps.

Meanwhile, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, and the Republic of the Congo faced fewer attacks, with 495, 341, and 329 incidents respectively. Côte d'Ivoire suffered the largest attack among them at 8.66 Gbps, targeting wired telecommunications carriers. Guinea’s wireless telecommunications carriers were most pressured, while telecommunications resellers were the hardest hit in the Republic of the Congo.

“This latest data from NETSCOUT reinforces a critical truth for West Africa: DDoS attacks aren’t just increasing in frequency, but also in intensity and sophistication,” Hamman emphasized. “While nations like Nigeria and Mali face a high volume of incidents, others are experiencing powerful, high-bandwidth attacks that can cripple essential services.

“As noted previously, the ICT sector remains firmly in the crosshairs across the continent in its entirety, making it vital for organisations across the region to prioritise proactive defence strategies, invest in continuous risk assessments and engage in broader cybersecurity collaboration to stay ahead of evolving threats,” he concluded.