Burkina Faso Internet Traffic Collapses After Saturday’s Protests
Burkina Faso is experiencing a major Internet outage, just days after Sudan’s network came back online following a 25-day blackout. Cloudflare Radar data shows traffic in the country dropping sharply after 22:00 UTC on Saturday, November 20 — the same time local authorities were facing escalating social tensions. The unrest, which began on November 14, 2021, intensified after French soldiers shot protesters who were attempting to block a military convoy.
Looking at the 30-day traffic graph, Sunday and Monday, November 21–22, stand out as days with almost no Internet activity in the country.
All Major ISPs Affected
The shutdown is not limited to one provider. Cloudflare’s data shows that every major ISP in Burkina Faso was hit, including the three largest: Orange, FasoNet, and Telecel. The impact is clearly visible when examining HTTP traffic by Autonomous System Number (ASN).
Mobile Networks Hit Hardest
Burkina Faso is a mobile-first country — in the last 30 days, mobile traffic accounted for 77% of all Internet traffic in the country. After the shutdown began, desktop traffic’s share rose noticeably, a pattern that suggests mobile networks were the main focus of the disruption.
Examining request counts over the last few days reinforces this picture: the proportion of desktop traffic has grown as mobile traffic has fallen off.
It remains unclear how long the outage will last. Cloudflare Radar is monitoring the situation as it evolves, and the same tool can be used to track Internet traffic patterns globally or in any individual country.
