Burkina Faso experienced a brief but sharp degradation in internet connectivity early on August 20, 2026. The disruption lasted approximately seven minutes, beginning at 04:42 UTC. The event was characterized by a significant drop in a key network traffic measurement.
Technical Details
The disruption recorded a severity score of 587. The primary affected signal was the Merit Network Telescope (merit-nt) measurement, which saw an 88% drop from its peak value during the event. This signal serves as a proxy for aggregate internet connectivity by analyzing backscatter traffic.
Other network signals showed less pronounced deviations. The ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 address blocks, saw a 14% drop. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) control plane visibility, which tracks routing announcements, remained stable with no observable drop. The cause has not been publicly attributed.
Connectivity was reported restored by 04:49 UTC.
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