{"id":602273,"date":"2025-07-11T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T13:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=602273"},"modified":"2025-07-11T18:41:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:41:01","slug":"africas-internet-registry-faces-liquidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/602273-africas-internet-registry-faces-liquidation.html","title":{"rendered":"Africa’s Internet registry faces liquidation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IP broker Cloud Innovation has instituted liquidation proceedings against the African Network Information Centre (Afrinic) on Thursday, 10 July, with notice of the action placed in Mauritian newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement issued on Friday, Cloud Innovation said that, given recent developments, it does not believe there is a reasonable prospect to restore Afrinic to proper governance in a timely manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrinic is without a board or CEO after a protracted legal battle caused by an attempt to reclaim large blocks of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to the Seychelles-based Cloud Innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until recently, it had also not issued new resources in months, despite those resources being approved by the Afrinic staff and members paying for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IP addresses are a fundamental part of the Internet\u2019s infrastructure, required by every server and user to connect and communicate globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrinic is the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and the Indian Ocean region, one of five global bodies tasked with managing the allocation of Internet resources like IP addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2013 and 2016, Afrinic assigned over six million IP addresses to Cloud Innovation in four large blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in 2021, Afrinic\u2019s board resolved to reclaim those blocks, arguing that Cloud Innovation was not operating as an IP broker when it applied for them and had failed to use them in accordance with its original application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Cloud Innovation and its allies launched a barrage of lawsuits to prevent the loss of their valuable resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well-placed industry sources told MyBroadband that Afrinic\u2019s governance was so poor that it was primed for an agrieved and well-resourced member like Cloud Innovation to \u201cdrive a truck through them\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal onslaught effectively paralysed Afrinic, opening the door for the Mauritian courts to place the organisation under administration and appoint a receiver to reconstitute its board and appoint a CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrinic election called<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After years of injunctions and uncertainty, a second receiver finally set the date for the election of a new Afrinic board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic voting was to begin on Monday, 16 June 2025 and run for a week until 23 June, when in-person voting at a venue in Mauritius would also be permitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The receiver had set several new rules for the elections, including that resource members must register the person designated to cast their vote and provide notarised supporting documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a resource member\u2019s director or someone holding a power of attorney from that resource member was allowed to designate the individual who would be casting their vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, new resource members who became Afrinic members after a particular date were not permitted to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These new rules were controversial. Some argued that the notarisation requirement excluded some members and that the rule disenfranchising new members was arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others warned that allowing unlimited proxies via power of attorney was a recipe for exploitation and disaster. This proved prophetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tanzanian Internet Service Providers Association brought an eleventh-hour ex parte<\/em> application and obtained an injunction preventing the receiver from opening the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he quickly approached the court to dismiss the injunction, and electronic voting was open by Wednesday, 18 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 23 June, the wheels came off. According to the Internet Service Providers\u2019 Association of South Africa (ISPA), individuals arrived for in-person voting with over 800 purported powers of attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrinic has fewer than 2,400 members spread across the entire continent and Indian Ocean region. Even during a highly controversial election in 2018, only 177 votes were cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISPA said there had been numerous reports from Afrinic members that fraudulent powers of attorney (POA) had been presented and votes cast in their names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most prominent and public of the complainants was Mauritian mobile network Emtel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmtel learned that an unrelated individual had cast its ballot using a fabricated POA, bearing a forged signature and notarised in South Africa,\u201d an Emtel representative told<\/a> Digital Business Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only after overwhelming pressure from various industry organisations and Afrinic resource members was voting suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The election was annulled following similar calls, including from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several strongly worded letters signed by ICANN President and CEO Kurt Lindqvist warned the receiver that Afrinic was at risk of facing a full review and being derecognised as a Regional Internet Registry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New election date<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a notice published on 30 June, the receiver announced that they had applied to the court for an exceptional extension and were granted a new deadline to hold the elections by 30 September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Cloud Innovation believes there is no reasonable prospect of success when even the highest verification standards, including notarised and apostilled documents, prove insufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecent events have demonstrated that a credible election has become impossible under the current conditions, leaving Afrinic in a perpetual governance deadlock,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn light of this impasse, Cloud Innovation is reluctantly supporting the formal winding-up of Afrinic as the only viable path forward to protect the African Internet community\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud Innovation also maintained that one disputed proxy vote caused the receiver to annul the entire election, silencing hundreds of valid votes cast in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it did not name the disputed proxy, Cloud Innovation was likely referring to the most public and prominent one attributed to a spokesperson and not anonymous sources \u2014 Emtel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its claim that it was just one allegedly fraudulent POA that cast the whole election into disarray has been rejected by several Afrinic members and industry organisations, including ISPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the receiver also told ICANN that there had only been one disputed POA, which the apex Internet governance body also questioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have seen reports from multiple members regarding the fact that they, too, were concerned that invalid powers of attorney were being used on their behalf,\u201d ICANN told the receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrinic\u2019s infinite loop<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In its statement, Cloud Innovation said its decision to pursue winding up Afrinic was aligned with ICANN\u2019s stance that it would derecognise Afrinic if it could not meet its obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Cloud Innovation also noted that ICANN\u2019s intervention, while aimed at protecting the community, has inadvertently made a quick resolution harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comment to MyBroadband, Cloud Innovation expressed that it had spent millions of dollars in legal fees in the hopes of restoring good governance at the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it was no longer willing to throw good money after bad or place its hopes in what would assuredly be a lengthy ICANN ICP-2 review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCloud Innovation\u2019s preference was always to fix AFRINIC from within via democratic means,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe pursued that route until it proved unworkable. We share the disappointment of many that it has come to this point. Nevertheless, we believe this course of action is in the best interest of the African Internet community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud Innovation said winding up Afrinic was a step toward ending the prolonged instability and opening the door for a fresh governance model untainted by past controversies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are confident that with collaborative effort, the African Internet community can emerge from this crisis with a stronger, more accountable framework for managing its vital numbering resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IP broker Cloud Innovation has instituted proceedings in the Mauritian courts to have Africa’s regional Internet registry, Afrinic, wound up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":602275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,40380],"tags":[61521,64681,19484,100554],"class_list":["post-602273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","category-trending","tag-african-network-information-centre-afrinic","tag-cloud-innovation","tag-internet-corporation-for-assigned-names-and-numbers-icann","tag-kurt-erik-lindqvist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602321,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602273\/revisions\/602321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}