Summary

  • Two orders issued on 14 May 2026 changed participation, not outcomes: ICANN was allowed to intervene as a party in the Cloud Innovation Ltd winding-up proceedings, and an interim order restrained statements published through Cloud Innovation's subsidiary Larus Ltd about judicial sanction of number-resource leasing.
  • The receiver's discharge application, filed on 8 October 2025, still had no published decision in the records reviewed as of 25 September 2026; the clearest live evidence of conditional control is the 24 August 2026 appointment of Mike Silber as CEO Designate, made by the Board with the Receiver's consent.
  • Mauritius keeps two independent oversight instruments switched on — the Declared Company designation under section 230 of the Companies Act 2001 and an inspector appointed by Proclamation No. 10 of 2025 — while the dispute over which register defines the membership remains unresolved.

Two orders on 14 May 2026: participation and restraint, not resolution

AFRINIC's own communiqué states that the Supreme Court of Mauritius issued an Interim Order against Cloud Innovation Ltd on 14 May 2026 following the publication of false and misleading statements disseminated through its subsidiary Larus Ltd, and that the same court, on the same date, granted an order formally allowing ICANN to intervene as a party in the proceedings (AFRINIC communiqué, 15 May 2026). AFRINIC says the publication wrongly represented that the Court had sanctioned or authorised leasing of AFRINIC-allocated internet number resources. The orders are interim: they operate pending further hearing and decide no merits question about leasing legality, resource ownership or membership.

The terms the parties dispute are visible in The Register's report of 27 May 2026: the Supreme Court allowed ICANN to become a party to Cloud Innovation's winding-up application SC/COM/PET/000508/2025 against AFRINIC; an ICANN spokesperson said numbering resources allocated through AFRINIC are not AFRINIC's assets and cannot be distributed in a winding-up; Cloud Innovation said it was not formally served with the interim order or the underlying papers; and Larus said the order is not a final judgment and decides neither IPv4 leasing lawfulness, nor IP ownership, nor Cloud Innovation's register or member position (The Register, 27 May 2026). Each is a party position or a quoted statement, not a finding.

The discharge that has not arrived

On 8 October 2025 the Receiver, Gowtamsingh Dabee, filed his report titled “Application for Termination of Receivership” before the Supreme Court (Bankruptcy Division) of Mauritius, initiating the process for his formal release; a decision was awaited and he agreed to keep supporting AFRINIC until discharge (communiqué of the Board and the Receiver, 13 October 2025).

AFRINIC's member update of 12 March 2026 is the fullest dated statement of the posture since: the discharge application had been heard and judgment was awaited; Cloud Innovation Ltd objected to the discharge and called for the appointment of another receiver; Cloud Innovation had filed a winding-up petition and a separate application to prevent AFRINIC from allocating IP resources; the Receiver had been approving IP address allocations and assignments, which Cloud Innovation argued exceeded his authority; AFRINIC remained a Declared Company; and the court had not yet decided ICANN's application for leave to intervene (AFRINIC member update, 12 March 2026). The last point was overtaken on 14 May 2026.

The strongest current evidence that the split persists comes from 24 August 2026, when AFRINIC announced Mike Silber as CEO Designate. The announcement was made by the Board with the consent of the Receiver, through a process initiated by the Receiver and the Board; Mr Silber assumes office on 1 January 2027 (AFRINIC communiqué, 24 August 2026). A board that appoints a chief executive with a receiver's consent, and a receiver who co-sponsors the recruitment, is what conditional control looks like in practice.

Two registers, one contest

In a communiqué dated 9 May 2026, AFRINIC disputed public statements by entities associated with Larus about a “Court-Ordered Shareholder-Position Continuity Structure” linked to case SC/COM/MOT/000399/2025. AFRINIC said the Court Order of 11 June 2025 did not establish such a structure, and that the order concerned its resource register — the record of number-resource holdings — rather than its statutory register of registered members under section 91 of the Companies Act 2001; it said it was considering further legal steps seeking clarification (AFRINIC communiqué, 9 May 2026). The distinction is not semantic: the register of members determines who may vote and which board the company answers to, while the resource register determines who holds addresses. An order that reaches one and not the other leaves the membership question open.

The June 2025 episode shows how contested that ground already was. ICANN's account of its 18–19 June 2025 application to the Supreme Court (Bankruptcy Division) states that the Court ordered the receiver to issue a communiqué informing resource members that the registration of Cloud Innovation Ltd as a registered member of AfriNIC Ltd was erroneous, and to explain the Nomination Committee's constitution — while noting that ICANN had no locus standi in that application (ICANN, 20 June 2025). The Internet Governance Project's analysis of 19 June 2025 asked whether the Supreme Court had in fact resolved AFRINIC's governance turmoil, and read the outcome as falling short (Internet Governance Project, 19 June 2025). Both accounts pre-date the May 2026 orders.

Oversight instruments that remain switched on

Two public-law instruments persist independently of the private litigation. A Mauritius government gazette notice dated 18 July 2025 designated AFRINIC a Declared Company under section 230 of the Companies Act 2001 (gazette notice, 18 July 2025). Proclamation No. 10 of 2025, dated 25 July 2025, appointed a Puisne Judge as inspector (Proclamation No. 10 of 2025, 25 July 2025). The inspector's mandate is an investigative office concerning the company's affairs; it sits alongside the receivership rather than replacing it.

ICANN's interest is institutional as well as contractual. It recognised AFRINIC as the regional internet registry for Africa and the Indian Ocean on 8 April 2005 (ICANN letter, 16 July 2025). It published implementation assessment procedures for ICP-2 compliance on 24 December 2024, the yardstick by which it assesses whether a regional internet registry meets its criteria (ICANN, 24 December 2024). In its letter of 16 July 2025 to Mauritius's IT Minister and the Receiver, ICANN opposed the 11 July 2025 application to dissolve AFRINIC as an effort by a single member to obtain control for commercial interests, reserved all rights under ICP-2, and demanded preservation of records relating to the election process in anticipation of a possible compliance review. No compliance review had been opened in the records reviewed for this article.

Elections keep moving while authority stays split

Results announced on 3 July 2026 at AFRINIC-37 in Nairobi filled community seats, not the board: Daniel K. Nanghaka, Afaf El Maayati and Dr Maud Adjeley Ashong Elliot took Governance Committee seats under a one-off staggered-term arrangement; Musa Stephen Honlue and Nitin Kelawon Sookun took the NRO NC/ASO AC seats; and Haitham El-Nakhal became PDWG Co-Chair by consensus, with a second co-chair position to be filled at the 18 November 2026 Public Policy Meeting (AFRINIC Elections, 3 July 2026). The board's own mandate traces to the election held in September 2025, after the June 2025 board vote was annulled.

Election integrity is now a criminal matter as well as a governance one. The Register reported on 27 August 2026 that Mauritius police's Central CID confirmed two alleged forgery cases relating to AFRINIC's 2025 elections were under investigation; that the receiver annulled the June 2025 board election after the Nomination Committee halted in-person voting; that ISPA alleged irregularities including a vote cast under a power of attorney the resource holder had not granted; and that the receiver did not respond to a request for comment (The Register, 27 August 2026). These are allegations under investigation; no findings have been announced.

What remains unresolved

Authority over the company and its registry function is therefore a conditional bundle: the Receiver remains in office and his consent is required for at least some board action; the board elected in September 2025 continues to act; the Supreme Court holds both the discharge application and the winding-up petition in which ICANN is now a party; the Declared Company designation and the inspector remain in force; and ICANN keeps its ICP-2 compliance authority in reserve.

No published final order granting or refusing the receiver's discharge was located in the records reviewed as of 25 September 2026; that absence is an evidence boundary, not proof that no such order exists.

The events that would settle the account are observable: a discharge order, or the appointment of a replacement receiver; a substantive ruling in the winding-up petition or in the applications concerning allocations; a compliance review opened under ICP-2; new gazette or registry-of-record filings; or findings in the election investigation. Until one of those lands, allocation approvals, membership records and board decisions remain contingent — and are best documented as such. BTW's directory entry for African Network Information Center - (AfriNIC) Ltd (directory entry) anchors the entity's identity and its prior coverage, including the July 2026 reading of the membership fee as a continuity premium.