Ethiopia Experiences Brief BGP Control Plane Disruption
Ethiopia experienced a brief but significant disruption to its internet control plane visibility on Wednesday, July 9, 2026. The event lasted approximately 15 minutes, centered around 05:40 UTC, and was characterized by a sharp drop in Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) activity.
Technical Details
The disruption was recorded with a severity score of 83. The primary affected signal was the BGP median, which measures the control plane visibility and routing stability of the country’s IP address prefixes. This signal registered a 6% drop from its peak value during the observation window.
Other internet measurement signals showed varying levels of impact. The ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 /24 prefixes, showed an 11% drop. The gtr-norm signal, a forecast deviation from expected traffic baseline, recorded a 69% drop. The merit-nt signal, a proxy for aggregate connectivity based on backscatter measurements, showed a 60% drop from its peak.
The cause has not been publicly attributed.
Connectivity was reported restored shortly after the disruption began.
