Zimbabwe experienced a significant internet connectivity disruption lasting more than 40 hours from August 26. The event, which began around 08:25 UTC, was characterized by a severe degradation in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) control plane, a key signal for network routing visibility.
Technical Details
The disruption persisted until approximately 00:30 UTC on August 28. The BGP signal recorded a severity score of 3,429, indicating a substantial drop in the number of visible network prefixes. This metric measures the stability of routing announcements between networks.
Concurrently, other network health indicators showed declines. Active probing for ICMP reachability across IPv4 address blocks (ping-slash24) showed an 11% drop from its peak. Backscatter measurements (merit-nt), which serve as a proxy for overall internet activity, recorded a more severe 77% drop from their observed peak.
The cause has not been publicly attributed. No official statements or news reports citing a specific reason for the disruption were identified in the immediate aftermath.
Network connectivity was reported as restored by the end of the observation period.
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