- AFRINIC faces growing pressure to dissolve following another failed election attempt and ongoing governance disputes
- Critics argue the registry’s structural flaws make reform impossible, requiring complete replacement
African internet registry in collapse
The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) has reached a breaking point in its governance crisis, with member Cloud Innovation Ltd. formally calling for its dissolution. This comes after AFRINIC’s latest attempt to hold board elections collapsed in June when officials controversially annulled the results over a single disputed proxy vote, discarding thousands of legitimate ballots. Technical experts describe the situation as “institutional paralysis” that threatens Africa’s IP address management system.
Cloud Innovation, AFRINIC’s third-largest member, has taken the step of petitioning ICANN and the Number Resource Organization to immediately appoint a replacement registry. Their legal filings obtained by BTW Media allege “years of financial mismanagement and operational failures” that have rendered AFRINIC “unfit for purpose.” The registry’s inability to conduct basic functions like member elections has raised alarms across the African tech community.
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A threat to Africa’s digital sovereignty
This crisis represents more than administrative dysfunction – it threatens the fundamental principle of regional internet autonomy. AFRINIC’s collapse comes amid troubling signs that ICANN is exploiting the situation to expand its influence over African internet resources, bypassing established multistakeholder processes.
Industry analysts note the registry’s failures have created dangerous vulnerabilities. “When you can’t even run an election properly, how can you manage something as critical as IP allocation?” asks networking expert Amara Nwosu. The situation has become so dire that even AFRINIC’s former technical staff warn that continued operation under current leadership risks fragmenting Africa’s internet infrastructure.
The proposed dissolution marks a radical but increasingly necessary solution. With AFRINIC demonstrating repeated inability to reform from within, many argue that only complete restructuring can protect Africa’s digital sovereignty from both internal mismanagement and external power grabs.
