Summary

  • The power to allocate AFRINIC number resources is contractual, conferred by the Registration Service Agreement, while the power to approve or obstruct the act in practice sat with a Receiver whose discharge application is still undecided on the public record.
  • AFRINIC has publicly recorded a 14 May 2026 Interim Order against Cloud Innovation Ltd over representations about judicial sanction for leasing AFRINIC-allocated resources, and ICANN's admission the same day as intervenor in the winding-up petition SC/COM/PET/000508/2025.
  • The remedy a resource member can enforce is narrow: a 21-day contractual appeal to the AFRINIC Board whose decision the agreement calls final — a route that presupposes an operating Board, and that is distinct from the Policy Development Process appeals of the reconstituted Appeal Committee.

The instrument that grants the power

The controlling document is AFRINIC's Registration Service Agreement (RSA). It states that AFRINIC is the entity accredited by ICANN under the ICP-2 framework to assign Internet number resources within its region, and that it is governed by a Board elected by the members under its Constitution (Registration Service Agreement). It also states that number resources are not property — real, personal or intellectual — that a member holds an exclusive right of use, that transfers are prohibited except on merger or acquisition or in compliance with adopted policy, and that breach remedies include remedying the breach and/or returning the resources, with termination possible after written notice and a 30-day show-cause period (Registration Service Agreement).

Those clauses matter because they answer the first question cleanly and the second one badly. The right to allocate is contractual. What happens when the counterparty empowered to exercise that right is under judicial custodianship is not addressed by the contract at all.

The same instrument supplies the only member-facing remedy route: a right of appeal to the parent registry, filed within 21 days of the appealed decision, with the AFRINIC Board's decision stated to be final within 15 days of receipt of documentation (Registration Service Agreement). Both deadlines are short. Both assume a Board that can sit, deliberate and decide.

The custodian is a court officer, not the Board

AFRINIC publicly noticed that an application had been made to the Bankruptcy Division of the Supreme Court of Mauritius for termination of the receivership and release or discharge of the Receiver, bearing Cause Number SC/COM/MOT/000757/2025 and fixed for hearing on 26 November 2025. By order dated 29 October 2025, members wishing to intervene had to seek leave by 12 November 2025 (Notice for termination of the receivership of AFRINIC).

A joint communiqué of the AFRINIC Board and the Receiver dated 13 October 2025 records that the Receiver filed his application for termination of receivership on 8 October 2025, that a court decision was awaited, and that until formal discharge he agreed to continue supporting AFRINIC after directors were appointed. The same document states that IP resource allocations, and the rights of Resource Members who joined since June 2022, were under review and subject to the ongoing court proceedings (AFRINIC announcement, 13 October 2025).

AFRINIC's member update of 12 March 2026 is the most operational statement of the position. It records that the Receiver's discharge application had been heard and that judgment was awaited; that the Receiver had been approving IP address allocations and assignments that went through the application process consistent with ICP-2 and prevailing policies; that Cloud Innovation Ltd contested that authority as beyond his powers; that Cloud Innovation Ltd filed a winding-up petition in July 2025, leading to AFRINIC's designation as a Declared Company under the Companies Act, still in force at that date; and that ICANN had applied to intervene (AFRINIC member update, 12 March 2026).

The practical reading is that allocation decisions were being made on a transactional basis: an application cleared the normal process, and the governing question was whether the Receiver's consent had been given. The public record does not contain a published discharge order.

The 14 May 2026 orders and Cloud Innovation Ltd's contrary position

On 15 May 2026 AFRINIC stated that on 14 May 2026 the Supreme Court of Mauritius issued an Interim Order against Cloud Innovation Ltd, following publications through its subsidiary Larus Ltd representing that the court had sanctioned the leasing of AFRINIC-allocated Internet number resources. AFRINIC denies any judicial sanctioning of arrangements outside its policy and contractual framework. The same statement records that on the same date the court granted an order allowing ICANN to intervene as a party in the winding-up petition under matter reference SC/COM/PET/000508/2025 (AFRINIC communiqué, 15 May 2026).

Two cautions apply to this paragraph. The Interim Order is interim: it is not a decision on the merits of who may lawfully deal in AFRINIC's address space. And AFRINIC published a redacted copy of the court document with that update; the document was retained as a source but its operative terms were not read, so the order's precise scope remains unverified (Redacted court document, 15 May 2026).

The wider litigation picture is contested in volume. AFRINIC states that Cloud Innovation Ltd has filed more than 25 cases against it before the Supreme Court of Mauritius and two before the Supreme Court of Seychelles, with related entities also litigating, and that interim orders obtained by those companies effectively impeded its Board of Directors from operating; the underlying dispute traces to AFRINIC's 2021 deregistration of Cloud Innovation's IP addresses for alleged breach of the RSA (AFRINIC litigation FAQ; AFRINIC court cases register). That is AFRINIC's account of the dispute and is attributed as such.

What ICANN's own position adds

ICANN's letter of 7 March 2025 to AFRINIC, care of the appointed Receiver, states that AFRINIC is the only entity empowered to assign IP addresses to network operators in Africa and the southern Indian Ocean; that the RIR distribution function cannot be used to benefit or protect a single creditor, member or group of members; that under the Official Receiver limitations were placed on assignments, with at least one formal complaint from an applicant waiting months; and it references a court mandate of 25 April 2025 for completing board elections (ICANN letter, 7 March 2025). This is ICANN's own position and is the clearest external statement that the assignment function is treated as separate from the insolvency proceeding.

The remedy a member can actually reach

For a resource member whose allocation or registration is refused, the enforceable route remains the RSA appeal: 21 days to file, and a Board decision within 15 days of receipt of documentation, stated to be final (Registration Service Agreement). Allocation and assignment rules themselves sit in AFRINIC's Consolidated Policy Manual, the operative compilation governing allocation and assignment of Internet number resources, which references hierarchical allocation from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and delegation of authority to members (Consolidated Policy Manual).

A second, differently scoped appeal body exists. On 28 August 2026 the AFRINIC Board constituted the Appeal Committee with appointments effective immediately until 31 December 2026; that Committee considers appeals arising from the Conflict Resolution provisions of the AFRINIC Policy Development Process (Constitution of the AFRINIC Appeal Committee). The distinction is material: a procedure appeal about how a policy was adopted is not the same as a contract appeal about why a member's resource request was refused, and the two run on different instruments and different clocks.

Continuity, and what the record does not show

On 24 August 2026 AFRINIC announced that the Board, with the consent of the Receiver, appointed Mr Mike Silber as CEO Designate, to assume office as Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2027; the communiqué was issued by the AFRINIC Board of Directors and the Receiver (Appointment of Mr Mike Silber as CEO Designate). A CEO who takes office on 1 January 2027 is a continuity signal with a delayed effect.

AFRINIC's public news index, as retrieved, lists items dated 24 August 2026 (CEO Designate appointment), 28 August 2026 (Constitution of the AFRINIC Appeal Committee) and 1 September 2026 (Draft RIR Governance Document), and shows no announcement of a court order discharging the Receiver (AFRINIC news index). That is a bounded absence finding about a public index, not proof that no order exists. The entity's own directory record is maintained at CTO AFRINIC.

The public record therefore supports a narrow, usable conclusion. The assignment power is contractual; the operational approval of allocations has been passing through the Receiver; external recognition of AFRINIC as the regional authority is unchanged in ICANN's statements; and the contractual remedy remains formally available on paper, with its practical operability during contested custody untested in anything published so far.