🔑 Focus keyphrases（关键词）

  • AFRINIC’s June 23, 2025 board election was halted due to a contested proxy vote, prompting ICANN scrutiny and legal actions.
  • AFRINIC and Cloud Innovation have been locked in litigation over millions of IPs, with Mauritius courts freezing AFRINIC operations and IANA oversight questioned.  AFRINIC与Cloud Innovation.

Governance showdown: AFRINIC, IANA, and proxy votes

On June 23, 2025, AFRINIC held its first in-person board election in Mauritius since being placed under court receivership in 2022. The election was suddenly suspended just minutes before the polls closed. The Nomination Committee cited one allegedly unauthorized proxy vote as the reason. AFRINIC staff said they contacted the named proxy issuer, who denied granting the authorization. Based on this, over 800 legally submitted proxy votes were thrown out. Proxy voting had long been part of AFRINIC’s electoral process, allowed through notarized powers of attorney and accepted by the Secretariat.

This abrupt move caused an uproar. Members—especially small operators from underserved regions—rely on proxies to vote. Many called the cancellation excessive and procedurally flawed. There was no appeal channel, no independent audit, and no proportional response. Stakeholders accused the Nomination Committee of weaponizing a single incident to sabotage the election process.

Within days, a criminal complaint was filed in Mauritius by a coalition of internet service providers. ICANN also launched a formal inquiry, requesting full transparency and fair elections. The Number Resource Organization (NRO) followed with a statement urging AFRINIC to respect community-developed rules and restore trust. These statements highlighted growing concerns over AFRINIC’s governance standards and its accountability to members.

Also read: Cloud Innovation calls for AFRINIC wind-up
Also read: AFRINIC elections 2025: ICANN is ‘inappropriate’, ‘unreasonable’ and ‘irresponsible’

Legal tug-of-war: IANA’s role and IP ownership

Since mid-2021, AFRINIC has been embroiled in litigation with Cloud Innovation Ltd, a company registered in Seychelles that holds over 6 million IPv4 addresses. AFRINIC attempted to revoke these IPs for alleged policy violations, but Cloud Innovation fought back in court. The dispute quickly escalated beyond technical policy enforcement into questions of legal jurisdiction, RIR authority, and ownership of internet number resources in Africa.

Mauritius courts responded by freezing AFRINIC’s bank accounts and placing the organization under judicial receivership by late 2022. The court-appointed receiver suspended board elections and has remained in control. On June 19, 2025, ICANN submitted an official petition to the court, calling for urgent governance reform, including committee reconstitution and the rerun of a credible election. The court granted this on June 20. The receiver has been given until September 30, 2025 to restart the election process.

But this legal and administrative intervention brought another issue to the forefront: who really owns IP addresses? AFRINIC operates under IANA’s oversight, but its authority rests on community-developed policies, not absolute ownership. IPs are allocated—not sold—based on demonstrated need. Cloud Innovation argued that once resources are issued, they become the recipient’s legitimate property. AFRINIC and ICANN refute this, saying allocation rights do not amount to ownership.

The standoff reveals a fragile balance. On one side are registries like AFRINIC, tasked with stewardship. On the other are companies like Cloud Innovation, seeking legal guarantees of control. As African networks expand, so does the value of these IP blocks—especially IPv4, which is nearly exhausted. With governance under scrutiny, calls for IANA to enforce clearer rules and for AFRINIC to rebuild credibility are growing louder.