Zimbabwe Experiences BGP Control Plane Disruption

Zimbabwe’s internet connectivity experienced a disruption in its control plane on August 8, 2026. The event lasted approximately 3.7 hours, starting at 15:40 UTC and ending at 19:20 UTC. The primary impact was observed on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a critical system for routing traffic across networks.

Technical Details

The disruption registered a severity score of 269. The affected BGP signal measures the visibility of network prefixes in the global routing table, indicating a reduction in the number of routes being advertised from Zimbabwe. During the event, the average BGP route count dropped by 1% from its peak. Other network health indicators, including active probing for reachability and traffic volume forecasts, showed minor deviations but were not the primary signals of the disruption.

The cause has not been publicly attributed.

Connectivity was reported restored by the end of the observation period.