Somalia experiences brief BGP disruption affecting connectivity

Somalia experienced a brief but notable connectivity disruption on Wednesday, August 12, centered on the internet’s routing control plane. The event lasted approximately 45 minutes, beginning at 12:20 UTC and concluding by 13:05 UTC.

Technical Details

The disruption primarily affected the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the system responsible for exchanging routing information between networks. The BGP signal recorded a severity score of 115, with a measured drop in visibility of 6% from its peak. The average number of visible BGP routes during the observation window was 200.48, down from a maximum of 203.

Other connectivity metrics showed concurrent but less severe degradation. The ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 /24 network blocks, recorded a 10% drop in reachability. The merit-nt signal, a proxy for aggregate connectivity based on backscatter measurements, showed a more significant 89% drop from its peak. The gtr-norm signal, indicating deviation from expected traffic levels, fell 72% from its observed maximum.

Reported Cause

The cause of the disruption has not been publicly attributed.

Connectivity was reported restored by 13:05 UTC.