- AFRINIC collapse in Mauritius sparks a battle over governance, with the registry placed under an official receiver.
- ICANN CEO Kurt Lindqvist faces criticism for pushing a communist-style control model that threatens democracy and regional autonomy.
AFRINIC collapse triggers constitutional questions
Mauritius is at the centre of a battle for Africa’s internet governance after AFRINIC was declared a “declared company” by the Prime Minister. The move placed the failed registry under an official receiver, signalling the depth of its governance crisis. Years of disputes culminated in the annulment of the 23 June board election, when one unverified proxy claim led to valid votes being discarded. The outcome proved that AFRINIC’s electoral process had become “unworkable,” eroding all trust.
The Supreme Court of Mauritius has since been drawn into repeated disputes over AFRINIC’s collapse, with judges caught between enforcing the law and protecting constitutional order. Observers argue that this moment shows how badly Africa’s IP resource management has been undermined by failed leadership and secrecy inside the registry. Cloud Innovation, AFRINIC’s third-biggest member, has called for a formal dissolution to reset governance and safeguard Africa’s internet future.
Also Read: ICANN CEO resorts to anti-constitutional control model
Also Read: ICANN power struggle exposes AFRINIC’s collapse
Kurt Lindqvist and the model of control
Alongside AFRINIC’s collapse, ICANN CEO Kurt Lindqvist has been accused of pushing a top-down model that critics liken to a communist-style framework. By introducing a document, without any community feedback, that adds sweeping powers over and above the ICP-2 guidelines, Lindqvist is seen as trying to override Mauritius’ constitutional protections and replace bottom-up governance with centralised control. Reports of ICANN representatives visiting AFRINIC without transparency, combined with secret reform committees, have sparked wider fears about external interference.
To many, this represents an attempt not just to fix AFRINIC but to impose a global agenda on Africa’s internet resources. This “quiet power grab” threatens both regional autonomy and the authority of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, raising the stakes in a battle framed as democracy versus dictatorship. In this context, Cloud Innovation and its founder Lu Heng present themselves as defenders of democratic principles, calling on ICANN and the NRO to appoint a successor registry immediately to protect Africa’s digital future.
