NEWS
Airtel Africa publishes Sustainability Report 2026
Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, has published its Sustainability Report 2026, highlighting progress in expanding connectivity, advancing financial inclusion and supporting sustainable growth across its footprint during the reporting period 2025 / 26.
The Sustainability Report 2026 demonstrates how Airtel Africa’ s investments in digital infrastructure, mobile financial services and strategic partnerships continue to transform lives and create opportunities for underserved communities in sub- Saharan Africa. It also details the company’ s ongoing transition to renewable energy sources and its approach to responsible business practices, environmental stewardship and transparent sustainability reporting.
Airtel Africa’ s chief executive officer, Sunil Taldar, said:“ Across Africa, access to connectivity, financial services and digital education is increasingly essential to economic opportunity. At Airtel Africa, we’ re expanding access to these services for millions of people, particularly in underserved and rural communities. This year, we continued to grow network coverage, smartphone adoption and Airtel Money services, while strengthening partnerships that extend our impact. Sustainability remains embedded in how we operate and grow our business. By improving energy efficiency and reducing reliance on diesel, we’ re strengthening operational resilience while supporting longterm sustainable growth.”
The Sustainability Report 2026 has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative( GRI) Standards and the GSMA telecommunications industry disclosures.
NETSCOUT warns of rising DDoS threats in South Africa
Recent Distributed Denial-of-Service( DDoS) attacks targeting South African Internet infrastructure providers, web hosting companies and connectivity services reflect a broader escalation in both the scale and sophistication of cyberthreats facing the country’ s digital economy, according to NETSCOUT.
The warning follows a wave of high-profile local incidents that reportedly disrupted hosting providers, ISPs and Internet infrastructure services across the country, raising concerns around increasingly co-ordinated and potentially extortionlinked DDoS activity.
“ The recent incidents impacting South African infrastructure providers demonstrate how DDoS campaigns are evolving beyond isolated disruptions into broader attacks against critical digital ecosystems,” said Bryan Hamman, Area Vice President for Africa, NETSCOUT.“ Attackers are deploying multi-vector DDoS attacks, combining multiple techniques within a single incident to overwhelm defences. This continues the shift toward more adaptive and harder-tomitigate attack strategies.”
Recent insights from NETSCOUT’ s Threat Intelligence Report for the second half of 2025 showed that South Africa has become one of the most targeted countries globally for DDoS attacks against several key industries.
Between July and December 2025, South Africa recorded 171,812 DDoS attacks, highlighting the scale of the local threat landscape. The average attack duration exceeded 74 minutes, increasing the risk of prolonged service disruption.
Within the broader Europe, Middle East and Africa( EMEA) region, South Africa was also ranked as the fifth most targeted country for DDoS attacks over the period, stressing the country’ s growing exposure within the regional cyberthreat landscape.
10
INTELLIGENT CIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com