­Flooding and terrorist attacks in Nigeria have knocked 234 base stations offline in recent weeks, according to Bharti Airtel.

Airtel Nigeria's Director of Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects Osondu Nwokoro said that 32 sites were damaged by floods, affecting operations of 41 base station, and 53 sites were affected by terrorist attacks, hitting operations in 193 base stations across the Northern part of Nigeria.

Terrorist attacks on base stations particularly in Northern Nigeria and in the Delta regions have been an increasing problem in the past couple of years as the mobile networks expanded their coverage to rural areas.

All of the mobile networks have called on the government to declare the base stations to be part of the national critical infrastructure, which would then compel the police to expend more effort in protecting them.

"The disasters have resulted in spiralling costs of maintenance in affected locations to thrice the normal rate, consequently leading to colossal financial losses and dipping revenues," Nwokoro added.