Sierra Leone Connectivity Disruption Lasted Over Three Hours

Sierra Leone experienced a significant internet connectivity disruption in the early hours of Tuesday, August 4, 2026. The event began at 01:25 UTC and lasted for approximately three hours, with restoration observed by 04:30 UTC. The disruption primarily affected the network’s control plane visibility.

Technical Details

The event recorded a severity score of 1,905. The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) signal, which measures the visibility of network prefixes to the global routing system, showed a 10% drop in the median number of visible routes. This indicates a reduction in the number of Sierra Leonean network paths advertised to the wider internet.

Other measurement signals showed varying impacts. The gtr-norm signal, a forecast deviation from expected traffic baselines, recorded a 73% drop from its peak. The merit-nt backscatter measurement, an aggregate connectivity proxy, fell by 100% from its peak during the event. Meanwhile, the ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 network blocks, showed a more modest 9% decline in reachability.

The cause has not been publicly attributed.

The disruption was resolved by the end of the observation window.