Zimbabwe experienced a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) control plane disruption on Saturday, August 30, 2026. The event began at approximately 13:45 UTC and lasted for nearly three hours, with connectivity observed to be restored by 16:30 UTC. The disruption was characterized by a significant reduction in the visibility of network routing information.
Technical Details
The event recorded a severity score of 372. The primary affected metric was the BGP median signal, which measures the control plane visibility of internet routing prefixes. A drop in this signal indicates a reduction in the number of network routes being advertised and seen globally. During the event, the BGP signal dropped by approximately 3% from its peak value.
Other network signals showed varying degrees of impact. The Merit Network Telescope (merit-nt) backscatter measurement, a proxy for overall network activity, recorded a 56% drop from its peak. The normalized Google Traffic Router (gtr-norm) signal, which measures deviation from expected traffic patterns, fell by 64%.
Reported Cause
The cause of the disruption has not been publicly attributed.
Network routing was reported as restored by the end of the observation period.
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