Cloudflare Finds 49 Internet Disruptions Worldwide in Third Quarter

Cloudflare recorded 49 Internet disruptions worldwide in Q3 2026, with government shutdowns in Iraq and power failures across Africa highlighting vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure.

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Internet connectivity underpins everything from financial transactions and public services to cloud computing and business operations. Yet the infrastructure supporting these activities remains vulnerable to disruptions that extend beyond telecommunications networks, including electricity failures, government restrictions, and physical damage.

These dependencies are becoming increasingly important as economies across the Middle East and Africa expand their reliance on digital services.

A new Cloudflare Radar report recorded 49 Internet disruptions globally between July and September 2026, highlighting how infrastructure failures and government decisions continue to affect connectivity.

Government-directed shutdowns accounted for 19 incidents, followed by 14 power-related disruptions across 10 countries and five disruptions linked to natural disasters.

The findings were based on traffic patterns observed through Cloudflare's global network, which handles more than 20% of web traffic.

Iraq Dominates Government-Directed Internet Shutdowns

Iraq accounted for 18 of the 19 government-directed shutdowns recorded globally during the quarter, with authorities repeatedly restricting Internet access during national examinations.

Most restrictions occurred between August 26 and September 28, lasting approximately 15 to 90 minutes each.

The measures were intended to prevent examination cheating, but their effects extended beyond educational institutions to the wider population and businesses dependent on Internet connectivity.

The practice is not new. According to Access Now's 2025 Internet Shutdowns Report, Iraq imposed six exam-related shutdown instances in 2025, resulting in 36 nationwide disruptions and 16 affecting the Kurdistan region.

The report documented 11 exam-related shutdown instances across six countries in 2025, demonstrating that the practice extends beyond Iraq.

Separately, Internet Society Pulse confirmed a 50-minute nationwide shutdown in Iraq on September 26.

The organization also reported that Iraq's communications minister had pledged to develop a digital examination distribution system intended to eliminate the need for future shutdowns.

However, repeated interruptions raise broader questions about the economic and operational costs of restricting connectivity, particularly as governments promote digital transformation and online services.

Conflict and Power Failures Expose Regional Vulnerabilities

In Ethiopia, renewed fighting in the Tigray region coincided with a government-directed Internet shutdown lasting 10 days.

Cloudflare observed a complete drop in traffic from the affected region, while national HTTP traffic declined by up to 30%.

The disruption illustrates how connectivity restrictions during conflict can extend beyond commercial activity, potentially limiting access to information, communication, and humanitarian coordination.

Electricity failures represented another major source of disruption.

Cloudflare recorded power-related outages affecting countries including Kenya, Botswana, Eswatini, and Gabon. Some resulted from unexpected infrastructure failures, while others involved planned load-shedding to manage electricity shortages.

"The Internet is designed to be distributed and resilient, but that resilience still depends on electricity," Cloudflare noted in its report.

The relationship is particularly important for countries expanding digital infrastructure without equivalent improvements in energy reliability.

Mobile towers, data centers, routers, and network interconnection facilities all require continuous electricity, making power availability a fundamental component of digital resilience.

Infrastructure Concentration Creates Wider Risks

The report also identified vulnerabilities outside the Middle East and Africa.

In Honduras, a power failure at an interconnection facility affected at least 11 major Internet providers, causing national HTTP traffic to fall by 63% during an approximately three-hour disruption.

The incident illustrates how failures at concentrated network facilities can affect multiple providers simultaneously.

Meanwhile, a cooling system failure at a Phoenix data center caused a near-total decline in traffic associated with Namecheap, demonstrating that even established infrastructure remains exposed to operational failures.

These incidents highlight the importance of backup electricity, redundant network connections, alternative routing, and geographically distributed infrastructure.

Why Internet Resilience Matters for Digital Economies

Cloudflare's findings illustrate several different sources of Internet disruption, but its measurements do not represent a comprehensive count of every global outage.

The data reflects disruptions visible through Cloudflare's network, while traffic declines alone cannot establish the full economic impact or number of affected users.

For businesses across the Middle East and Africa, the implications extend to digital payments, cloud applications, remote operations, and essential public services.

Building reliable digital economies will therefore require coordinated investment in telecommunications, electricity infrastructure, network redundancy, and business continuity planning.

As governments accelerate digital transformation and companies expand their dependence on cloud-based systems, resilience will increasingly depend on whether critical services can remain operational when the physical infrastructure supporting them fails.