Somali pirates have claimed a new victim by disrupting the laying of an undersea fibre optic cable that has promised to end east Africa’s isolation as the last region of the world not connected to the global broadband network.

The managers of Seacom, a $600m project owned by private investors, said on Wednesday that its cable would not come into service until July 23 – nearly a month later than planned – because pirate activity off the coast of Somalia had delayed the work of its cable-laying contractor.