Congo experienced a brief but significant connectivity disruption on the evening of August 18. The event, which lasted approximately 54 minutes, was characterized by a sharp drop in a key backscatter measurement signal used as a proxy for overall network activity.
Technical Details
The disruption was observed between 19:36 and 20:30 UTC. The primary affected metric was the Merit Network Telescope (merit-nt) median signal, which recorded a severity score of 5,003. This signal, which measures unsolicited internet background traffic as an aggregate connectivity proxy, dropped by 97% from its peak value during the event.
Other network health indicators showed less severe impacts. The ping-slash24 signal, measuring ICMP reachability across IPv4 /24 prefixes, saw an 8% drop. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) visibility, representing the control plane for routing prefixes, remained stable with no observable drop. Traffic volume, as measured by the gtr-norm signal, decreased by 7% from its peak.
The cause has not been publicly attributed. Connectivity was reported restored by the end of the observation window.
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