Uganda Experiences Prolonged BGP Control Plane Disruption

Uganda’s internet control plane experienced a significant, multi-day disruption beginning on July 15. The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) signal, a key indicator of network routing visibility, showed sustained degradation for over five days before stabilizing on July 21.

Technical Details

The disruption to Uganda’s BGP routing tables lasted approximately 5.1 days, from July 15 at 22:00 UTC until July 21 at 00:30 UTC. The event registered a severity score of 104,285. BGP is the protocol that manages how traffic is routed between different networks on the internet; disruptions can affect the visibility and reachability of a country’s IP address space.

Other network signals showed varying levels of impact during the observation period. The ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 address blocks, recorded a minor 5% drop from its peak. The gtr-norm signal, a normalized measure of traffic flow, showed a more significant 67% decline from its observed peak. The merit-nt signal, a proxy for aggregate connectivity, dropped to zero at its lowest point.

Reported Cause

The cause of the prolonged disruption has not been publicly attributed.

Network connectivity was reported restored by the end of the observation window.