AFRINIC · RIR Watchdog

Story

BTW reporting and context linked to this RIR. For the proposal-by-proposal history, the people involved and their changing positions, start with Policy.

Story

Latest stories

1,188Stories

A realistic private technical allocation workshop with exactly three narrow brass edit gates, a single sealed reserve cabinet replacing an older empty cabinet, a 24-month measuring dial, and separate blank trays for existing holdings and new receipts, without readable text, logos, people, flags, maps or government, court, police, punishment or confiscation imagery.

Story

Three edits, one private queue: what Soft Landing BIS Draft 6 clarified

On 22 September 2017, Soft Landing BIS Draft 6 made three recorded repairs: it clarified demonstrated need across exhaustion phases, reworded the recurrence clause, and said that a new IPv6-deployment `/12` replaced the old unforeseen-use `/12`. Those edits mattered because a few…

A realistic private registry operations room where a blank ratification token crosses a transparent service firewall toward a reverse-DNS delegation model, three verification lamps, four sealed notices, a timing ring and an evidence drawer, without text, logos, people or sovereign imagery.

Story

When “Must Remove” Became AFRINIC’s Operational Duty

Resolution 201803.395 was a brief corporate decision with a long technical shadow. By ratifying a policy that required the removal of persistently lame reverse-DNS nameserver attributes, AFRINIC’s Board did not acquire regulatory power; it accepted responsibility for making a…

The RIR governance draft changed hands before the public could inspect version 3

Story

The RIR governance draft changed hands before the public could inspect version 3

On 28 July, the ASO Address Council delivered its recommended RIR Governance Document to the NRO Executive Council and transferred responsibility for the text. The document, the explanation of changes from version 2 and the redline were not published with that handoff. The next…

Editorial illustration of two interim Board offices separated from AFRINIC’s vacant elected Seat 2

Story

AFRINIC’s March 2018 continuity test: two interim offices, one elected seat

Between 22 and 26 March 2018, AFRINIC’s Board moved through a tightly sequenced leadership transition: it sought signed resignations, installed Abibu Ntahigiye and Christian Bope as interim chair and vice-chair, put a review deadline on those appointments, and treated Sunday…

A realistic private registry compliance desk with a three-stage cure track, a closed contract folder, a separate appeal tray and archival ledger drawers, with no people, logos or readable text.

Story

The Three-Month Cure: What AFRINIC Draft 5 Did—and Did Not—Authorise

Three months stood between public identification and the proposed recovery of an Internet number resource. After trying to contact the member and correct an observed discrepancy or non-compliance, AFRINIC would publish the resources concerned; during the interval, the…

A realistic private technical registry meeting table with five reviewer folders, two archival chair files and three locally submitted participant files, beside a transparent selection track turning inward, a brass three-quarter voting gauge, a fourteen-day clock and an open reasons ledger, with no readable text, logos, identifiable people or judicial symbols.

Story

Five Seats, Fourteen Days: What AFRINIC’s Second Appeal Charter Actually Changed

On 26 November 2017, AFRINIC approved a redesign of five reviewer seats while leaving an appellant just fourteen calendar days to challenge a policy chair’s decision. That juxtaposition matters. A filing window determines whether an objection can be heard; a composition rule…

Realistic private technical meeting desk with paired chair controls, a dated appeal intake, a three-seat internal review table, a four-week timing device and a separate Board-variance lever; no readable text, logos, people, flags, maps, court, police, punishment, confiscation or government imagery

Story

The appeal with a clock, but no door out of the house

On 9 November 2017, Draft 2 of AFPUB-2017-GEN-002 rearranged the controls of AFRINIC’s proposed policy process. One Chair and an assisting Vice-Chair became two chairs, each placed nearer the levers of discussion, phase progression and rough-consensus assessment. An appeal no…

A realistic private technical registry table where a dated draft folio enters a fifteen-position review track; one side holds a small cluster of individually distinct objection cards, the other repeated same-shaped cards, and an open transparent ledger exposes position grouping, denominator uncertainty and reasoned disposition before a sealed but unopened board folder, with no readable text, logos, identifiable people, ballot boxes, or sovereign, governmental, police, punitive, confiscatory or judicial imagery.

Story

The consensus receipt Draft 7 never showed

On 26 December 2017, AFRINIC’s co-chairs described a Last Call dominated by repeated petition letters and one substantive objection, then urged immediate Board ratification. A later official review looked at that same procedural stage and found considerable opposition, no…

A registry records desk separated from independently operated network rooms.

Story

AFRINIC continuity depends on verifiable records

A regional registry is trusted through accurate number-resource records, accountable decisions and a continuity plan that survives institutional dispute.

Conceptual editorial scene of a meeting chair arranging four illuminated policy stages while a board and appeal desk remain connected behind the room

Story

Who gets to call consensus? The constitution inside AFRINIC’s PDP Bis Draft 1

Published on 28 April 2017, PDP Bis Draft 1 proposed something larger than a tidy set of meeting rules. It was an internal constitution for the process that would make later number-resource policy. One Chair, assisted by a Vice-Chair, would classify input, control movement…

Photorealistic private technical registry desk with a large address-token tray divided through a precise 32-to-1 aperture into smaller request trays, beside a sealed reserve chamber linked to restrained IPv6-transition equipment, with no readable text, logos or people

Story

Thirty-two parts of a request: the queue inside AFRINIC’s Draft 4

On 31 March 2017, AFRINIC’s operative Soft Landing policy entered Phase 1 with a `/13` ceiling. Fourteen days later, on 14 April, Draft 4 proposed a `/18` ceiling instead. That was not a cosmetic adjustment. It would have reduced the largest request event from 524,288 addresses…

Conceptual financial assurance chain linking directors, management, an audit committee, an independent auditor and members around a private registry ledger

Story

The Five Layers Behind AFRINIC’s 2016 Accounts

AFRINIC’s Board approved a signed, audited statement set on 19 April 2017, but the strength of that record lies in what it proves—and in its unusually legible limits—not in the comforting shorthand that the accounts were simply “audited and approved.”

A realistic private technical registry archive room with five empty reviewer chairs behind a transparent appeal firewall and a separate Board-side appointment console holding five removable brass seat tokens beside a sealed clock, without readable words, logos, identifiable people or judicial imagery.

Story

Five seats, one Board: AFRINIC’s 2017 appeal contradiction

A entity challenging a PDWG-chair action had fourteen calendar days to appeal, yet the five-seat body receiving that appeal depended on the AFRINIC Board for every appointment and remained exposed to Board replacement power. The 2017 design therefore solved one problem while…

Realistic private technical allocation desk with meeting-comment cards feeding a Draft 5 redline, measured /24-sized trays, a restrained recurrence timer and a separately gated reserve cabinet, with no readable text, logos or people

Story

Draft 5’s selective answer to the AFRINIC-26 floor

On 31 May 2017, the AFRINIC-26 meeting room did not give Soft Landing BIS Draft 4 a consensus. What followed is more revealing than either a simple story of acceptance or one of rejection. Draft 5 appeared under two unreconciled official dates—27 June in the revision history and…

A realistic private technical registry review desk with three intake channels, an evidence tray beside the complaint channel and a downstream redline, with no readable text, logos or identifiable people.

Story

The Gate Draft 4 Did Not Change

AFRINIC’s fourth Resources Review draft is a lesson in why institutional power must be read through redlines, not impressions. The politically sensitive review gate was plainly present in Draft 4, but it was inherited from Draft 3. Draft 4’s own changes came later in the…

A realistic private technical registry finance desk with seven unmarked committee places around a transparent cost model, three differently sized resource-member trays and a bounded return path to a finance committee, with no people, logos, readable words or sovereign imagery.

Story

The seven seats that framed AFRINIC’s fee question

Resolution 201701.324 did not decide what AFRINIC’s members should pay. It decided who would be allowed to organise that question first. By approving a Fees Review Committee and naming seven members, the Board created a compact channel through which assumptions about services…

A documented service chain showing PTI performing numbering work while ICANN remains answerable through contracts, records and continuity duties

Story

The consent that changed IANA’s numbering operator but kept ICANN on the hook

AFRINIC Resolution 201609.300 was a small corporate act with a large design lesson: when a critical registry service moves to an affiliate, continuity depends less on institutional prestige than on whether consent, performance, liability, records, remedies and replacement remain…

Independent auditors reviewing legal invoices and approval records beside registry operations.

Story

AFRINIC’s litigation story needs an incentive timeline

The dispute with Cloud Innovation became a continental governance crisis, but labels such as aggressor or defender obscure the control question: who could prolong each case, who authorised that action and who was paid when it continued?

A court-appointed administrator standing between a courthouse and an international governance meeting.

Story

ICANN and Mauritius must separate their AFRINIC powers

ICANN can question whether AFRINIC still satisfies recognition criteria, while Mauritius’ courts determine the receiver’s legal authority. Treating those two powers as interchangeable would deepen the registry’s legitimacy crisis.

Independent auditors reviewing legal invoices and approval records beside registry operations.

Story

AFRINIC’s legal-spend debate needs an audited ledger

An October 2021 engagement letter set a US$1,000 hourly rate and left disbursements uncapped. The document raises serious oversight questions, but only a complete invoice and approval record can establish what AFRINIC actually paid and who authorised it.