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        <title>SysAdmin Journal · AFRINIC</title>
        <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/tag/afrinic</link>
        <description>Posts tagged with AFRINIC</description>
        <language>en</language>
        <lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:52:57 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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        <ttl>60</ttl>
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            <title>AFRINIC Board Election date has been annouced</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-board-election-date-has-been-annouced</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-board-election-date-has-been-annouced</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:52:57 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>AFRINIC Board elections are set for 23 June 2025, marking a key step in restoring governance after years of legal and operational challenges.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>After months of uncertainty and governance limbo, a formal step has been taken to reconstitute AFRINIC’s Board of Directors. Today, the Official Receiver, Gowtamsingh Dabee, appointed by the Supreme Court of Mauritius, issued a communique announcing that elections will be held on <strong>Monday, 23 June 2025</strong>.</p><p>The communique, sent via the AFRINIC Communications team, comes as a long-awaited signal that AFRINIC is edging toward operational normalcy, following extended legal battles the past few years. According to the document, the elections will be conducted under the provisions of AFRINIC’s current constitution (called the AFRINIC Bylaws).</p><p>G. Dabee confirms that the Nomination Committee has been constituted. It will be  chaired by <a href="https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/6A9A9BAC815D84C118CD22DA799EA4F2.html" rel="noreferrer">The Hon. Simon Nicholas Davenport KC</a> with the assistance of <a href="https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/FFBA40F4167CA89638522BCCEB2748A5.html" rel="noreferrer">Nicholas George Leah</a>, <a href="https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/3CFC7822AD54AC4D2048C4324AF72342.html" rel="noreferrer">Priscellia Elouise Robinson</a> and <a href="https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/C2CA44DF6ABDED3978C90C4A47366E96.html" rel="noreferrer">George Hayden Penny</a>, all qualified barristers in England and Wales and regulated by the Bar Standards Board.</p><p>The Election Committee will comprise of Yogesh Chadee, Head of Value Added Services at AFRINIC, as chair of the committee. He will be assisted by Guylaine Laiyra, Senior Executive Assistant at AFRINIC. The e-voting platform will be operated by Civica Election Services. Ben Halton, Deputy Manager at the latter company has been appointed to the Election Committee. Anjoolen Nair from G. Dabee's office has also been appointed to the Election Committee.</p><p>For those of us who have observed AFRINIC’s turbulent journey, this marks a pivotal moment. Community-driven governance has always been a pillar of the RIR ecosystem. The forthcoming election provides an opportunity to rebuild legitimacy, trust, and functionality, starting at the board level.</p><p>AFRINIC members eligible to vote are encouraged to follow official communications closely in the coming weeks for details on nominations, candidate vetting, and voting procedures.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC Community Discuss list&#039;s broken moderation</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-community-discuss-lists-broken-moderation</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-community-discuss-lists-broken-moderation</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jun 2023 18:32:58 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>The AFRINIC Community is cut off from AFRINIC Discussions list. A censorship call from the former CEO, which was meant to last more than a few days, has now reached one whole year.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On 24 June 2022, the former CEO of AFRINIC, Eddy Kayihura, <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2022-June/005421.html">announced</a> a temporary moderation of the <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss">Community Discuss</a> mailing list, mentioning the AFRINIC Code of Conduct issues. The temporary moderation lasted for three days.</p><p>Then, on 27 June 2022, Eddy Kayihura sent an email to explain that because the mailing list was getting out control with members violing the Code of Conduct, the Community Discuss mailing list will be moderated until further notice. He mentioned that all emails will be archived on <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss-unmoderated/">https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss-unmoderated</a>. Only emails that are approved by the moderators will be received by the recipients of the mailing list and the emails will be archived at <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss">https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss</a>. Eddy Kayihura mentioned that the moderation will be carried out based on advice from the Governance Committee.</p><p>There was no mentioned about the Board of Directors being involved in the decision to moderated the mailing list. It appeared solely the former CEO's decision to do so.</p><p>On 4 November 2022, Eddy Kayihura's contract with AFRINIC expired and with the Board of Directors not having quorum, his contract could not be renewed. </p><p>Eddy left without reverting the moderation decision and with no quorum on the Board, the Directors cannot overturn Eddy's instruction that was given to the technical staff.</p><h2 id="whats-broken-with-the-mailing-list">What's broken with the mailing list?</h2><p>Now, let's fast forward to February 2023. A Resource Member sent an email to the <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/private/members-discuss/">Members Discuss</a> list, which is private and its archive is accessible only to AFRINIC Resource Members. The Resource Member also copied the Community Discuss list.</p><p>With the moderation still in place, that email should be available on the public archive of the <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss-unmoderated/">unmoderated Community Discuss</a> list. However, it was not there. Therefore, I sent an email to the Members Discuss list and copied the Community Discuss list, in which I asked <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss-unmoderated/2023-February/000789.html">Kishna Dhondee</a>, the legal officer of AFRINIC, whether the Community Discuss list is still being moderated and if yes, then by whom.</p><p>The next day, I spoke to Kishna on phone and the emails appeared on the list. I can't explain what triggered the emails to appear on the unmoderated Community Discuss list.</p><p>Now, fast forward to June 2023... I replied a few emails on the Members Discuss list and copied the Community Discuss list, on the interest of the AFRINIC Community and to have some transparency on the mailing list censorship. However, those emails did not appear on the unmoderated Community Discuss list — which prompts me to believe that the <strong><u>unmoderated</u></strong> list is in fact <strong><u>moderated</u></strong>!</p><p>I sent an email to AFRINIC Comms, asking them again about the censorship of the list. I also sent an email to the AFRINIC Board Director, S. Moonesamy, asking him for his technical opinion on the matter.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>Eddy Kayihura bids farewell to AFRINIC as its Chief Executive Officer</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/eddy-kayihura-bids-farewell-to-afrinic</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/eddy-kayihura-bids-farewell-to-afrinic</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2022 18:08:16 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>The impact of the legal cases against AFRINIC has made it such, that today AFRINIC has neither a properly constituted Board of Directors nor a Chief Executive Officer.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last night, at 23h26 MUT, Eddy Kayihura wrote to the AFRINIC <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/members-discuss">Members Discuss</a> mailing list. The subject of the email was <strong>"AFRINIC Update Nov 2022"</strong>, a subject often used when Eddy provides monthly updates about the organisation. However, in this email the update was about his end of contract with AFRINIC on 3 November 2022.</p><p>At the moment, AFRINIC does not have a properly constituted Board of Directors and it cannot just organise an election to fix the same. Therefore, there is currently no authority that could have renewed Eddy's employment contract with AFRINIC. Such could only be done through a Board resolution. When Eddy's contract expired at midnight on 4 November 2022, it meant the end of journey for him as the CEO of AFRINIC.</p><p>In his email, Eddy mentioned that during his time at AFRINIC, he had to take bold and difficult decisions. While he won't be around to oversee the end-results of those decisions, he wished that the future leadership of AFRINIC takes good care of the staff, as they stood honourably protecting the interests of community members.</p><p>Lastly, Eddy said that he will remain a committed member of the African community to help AFRINIC in the next steps.</p><p>The last sentence makes me ponder what do those mean — next steps of AFRINIC.</p><p>Thank you for serving AFRINIC with all your heart, Eddy.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>How much research did Le Mauricien do in the AFRINIC vs &quot;Resource members&quot; case?</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/how-much-research-did-le-mauricien-do-in-the-afrinic-vs-resource-members-case</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/how-much-research-did-le-mauricien-do-in-the-afrinic-vs-resource-members-case</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:14:44 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>The legal battle involving AFRINIC and its Resource members has been on-going since 2020. I&#039;ve followed that closely and very sadly the local press did not follow it the same way. Today, it made me sad again to read a poorly researched subject by one local newspaper.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>An article appeared in Le Mauricien newspaper today. The headline reads as follows:</p><blockquote>L'immunité diplomatique et judiciare refusée à Afrinic</blockquote><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://sysadmin-journal.com/content/images/2022/10/LM-20221011.jpeg" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="810" height="946" srcset="/content/images/size/w600/2022/10/LM-20221011.jpeg 600w, /content/images/2022/10/LM-20221011.jpeg 810w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"><figcaption>Image source: lemauricien.com</figcaption></figure><p>The article was also published on <a href="https://www.lemauricien.com/le-mauricien/conflits-diplomatiques-et-internet-limmunite-diplomatique-et-judiciaire-refusee-a-afrinic/518710/">lemauricien.com</a> at 18h30.</p><p>I read the article. Then, I read it again. Something was ticking and seemed off about the article. Actually, a few days ago, five days ago to be precise, an article was published on a website called <a href="https://www.newsanyway.com/2022/10/06/mauritius-rejects-afrinics-demands-for-diplomatic-immunity/">NewsAnyway</a> with a similar title in English.</p><blockquote>Mauritius rejects AFRINIC’s demands for diplomatic immunity</blockquote><p>I read that article from NewsAnyway again and compared it with the one published on lemauricien.com. The content of both articles are way too similar. It felt like either Le Mauricien reproduced the news content from NewsAnyway or maybe the same source, without investigating the subject further.</p><p>The other thing that ticks is that Le Mauricien refers to an entity calling itself <em>Number Resource Society</em> as "<strong>la Number Resource Society, qui est reconnue comme l’organisation mondiale à but non lucratif qui plaide pour un Internet mondial illimité, stable et uni.</strong>" 😳</p><p>We are not talking about an organisation like the <a href="https://eff.org">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> here but an entity whose existence seems only to reflect an issue that pertains between AFRINIC and a Resource member.</p><p>The Number Resource Society did not utter a word on the ICT Authority's <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/ict-authority-proposal-to-monitor-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/">technical proposal</a> to break the internet in 2021. Neither it is fighting real internet freedom fights like maybe standing up against <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-17/hong-kong-considers-blocking-telegram-local-paper-says">Hong Kong authorities who are considering to block Telegram</a>.</p><p>Le Mauricien did not quote anyone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General's office, nor did they publish any document or letter that could shed some light to this subject. It mentions things that Number Resource Society claims, which is similar to what is reported on NewsAnyway. Yet, it did not quote anyone from the Number Resource Society. Are there any Mauritians involved in that?</p><p>A few weeks ago, I <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-issued-a-communique-after-cloud-innovation-published-right-of-reply-in-mauritian-newspaper/">published</a> a post after a communique by AFRINIC appeared in the l'express newspaper. I only referred to the communique, what was AFRINIC's complaint against its Resource member and what are the allegations that the latter has brought against AFRINIC.</p><p>Shortly after, I was contacted by the legal representative of that Resource member and they sent me a cease and desist letter for having mentioned the AFRINIC communique. They also asked for a right of reply which I <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/right-of-reply-from-cloud-innovation/">published</a> verbatim.</p><h2 id="what-is-afrinic">What is AFRINIC?</h2><p>I advise people to do some research on the subject. Learn about <a href="https://afrinic.net/history">AFRINIC</a>, its <a href="https://afrinic.net/governance">governing principles</a>, its <a href="https://afrinic.net/policy">bottom-up approach</a> and have a look at its <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/services/afrinic-rsa-en-201801.pdf">Registration Service Agreement</a> which is the source of the legal tension, before drawing up any conclusion.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC published FAQ to explain the litigation with Cloud Innovation Ltd</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-published-faq-to-explain-the-litigation-with-cloud-innovation-ltd</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-published-faq-to-explain-the-litigation-with-cloud-innovation-ltd</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 02 Sep 2022 13:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>More and more people are taking cognisance of this particular matter between AFRINIC and one of its resource members. AFRINIC even issued a press communique to clarify the situation. The communique was published in a few Mauritian newspapers and news websites across Africa.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Recently, AFRINIC published a <a href="https://afrinic.net/litigation-faq">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a> page on its website to provide information on the litigation between the organisation and Cloud Innovation Ltd (CIL).</p><p>The first question addresses the origin of the litigation. AFRINIC uses an example whereby a permit is given to a company to build a hotel in Africa on a plot of land. Later on, it is found that a shopping centre has been built there and not a hotel as per the initial terms agreed. With this analogy, AFRINIC attempts to explain that Cloud Innovation Ltd is not using the allocated blocks of IPv4 addresses as per the initial need that CIL specified when requesting those resources.</p><blockquote>Due to the scarcity of IPv4 addresses, AFRINIC community passed an <a href="https://www.afrinic.net/library/news/1973-afrinic-is-approaching-ipv4-exhaustion-phase-1">IPv4 Soft-Landing policy</a> in 2011. The policy came in force on 31 March 2017 and it entered <a href="https://www.afrinic.net/library/news/1973-afrinic-is-approaching-ipv4-exhaustion-phase-1">Phase 1</a>. On 13 January 2020, AFRINIC <a href="https://afrinic.net/20200113-afrinic-enters-ipv4-exhaustion-phase-2">announced</a> that Phase 2 of IPv4 Exhaustion has begun. Thus, IPv4 number resources allocation is done strictly on a needs basis.</blockquote><p>AFRINIC states that it informed Cloud Innovation Ltd of the breach of their agreement in June 2020. It asked CIL to explain and remedy it. However, since there was no remedial action taken, in March 2021 AFRINIC started the procedure of reclaiming the IPv4 resources from CIL. The latter initiated legal proceedings.</p><p>The page contains a timeline of events as they happened.</p><p>Interestingly, the timeline stops at 14 January 2022, when the appeal of Cloud Innovation Ltd against a previous judgment was dismissed with costs. The timeline does not include the recent lawsuits.</p><p>The second question takes us down the history lane. AFRINIC explains how the internet began, the role of the <a href="https://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a>, <a href="https://www.iana.org/">IANA</a> and the establishment of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) — <a href="https://www.apnic.net/">APNIC</a>, <a href="https://www.arin.net/">ARIN</a>, <a href="https://www.ripe.net/">RIPE NCC</a>, <a href="https://www.lacnic.net/">LACNIC</a> and <a href="https://afrinic.net/">AFRINIC</a>.</p><p>AFRINIC states that just like the other four RIRs, it has provisions to determine how IP number resources allocated to Resource Members are used. It also reaffirms its dedication to the African community.</p><p>The third question relates to the procedures that AFRINIC adopts to validate members and their requests for number resources.</p><p>The fourth and last question is about the change of usage of IP resources. That is, what should a Resource Member do if the latter needs to use the IP resources for a purpose other than what was stated in the initial request.</p><p>At the time of writing this post, <a href="https://cloudinnovation.org/">Cloud Innovation Ltd</a> has five press releases published on its website — including letters, documents and Supreme Court rulings. The <a href="https://cloudinnovation.org/press-release2.html">press release</a> of 14 July 2021 contains a timeline of events and how Cloud Innovation Ltd responded to AFRINIC.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC issued a communique after Cloud Innovation published &quot;right of reply&quot; in Mauritian newspaper</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-issued-a-communique-after-cloud-innovation-published-right-of-reply-in-mauritian-newspaper</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-issued-a-communique-after-cloud-innovation-published-right-of-reply-in-mauritian-newspaper</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2022 11:23:09 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The legal battle between AFRINIC and one of its resource members, Cloud Innovation Ltd, continues. However, it seems that the fight is not just in the Supreme Court of Mauritius anymore but they are also fighting to be heard via the press. 🤔</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On the 5th of August, Cloud Innovation Ltd, a resource member of AFRINIC, published a « right of reply » in Le Défi newspaper. The article is also available on <a href="https://defimedia.info/right-reply-cloud-innovation">defimedia.info</a>.</p><p>In the article, the Management of Cloud Innovation Ltd, alleges that some former senior members of AFRINIC staff have used Le Défi to fight against Cloud Innovation Ltd. The latter alleges that AFRINIC has demanded Cloud Innovation to monitor hundreds of millions of end users and threatened to terminate internet connectivity of those end users if refused.</p><p>The article mentions Lu Heng, the CEO of Cloud Innovation Ltd, as a global citizen having residency permits in countries in Europe, Middle East and Asia. Lu Heng is mentioned as occupying board seats in a number of non-profit global organisations – citing The Pacific Telecommunications Council.</p><h2 id="afrinic-communique">AFRINIC Communique</h2><p>AFRINIC published a <a href="https://afrinic.net/20220827-communique">communique</a> on its website in which it explained that Cloud Innovation Ltd has been been allocated 6.2 million IPv4 addresses by AFRINIC following needs expressed for the region. It further states that the use of the IP addresses is governed by a <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/services/afrinic-rsa-en-201801.pdf">Registration Service Agreement (RSA)</a> signed by Cloud Innovation Ltd.</p><p>In June 2020, AFRINIC drew the attention of Cloud Innovation Ltd to breaches of its RSA and asked for explanation, failing which, AFRINIC initiated contractual procedures stipulated in the RSA.</p><p>The communique states that instead of collaborating, Cloud Innovation Ltd chose to initiate legal proceedings against AFRINIC and till date Lu Heng and his associates have entered over 25 lawsuits against AFRINIC before the Supreme Court of Mauritius.</p><p>The communique was issued as a result of the article published in Le Défi newspaper on 5 August 2022.</p><p>The AFRINIC communique was also published in French on page 7 of the l'express dimanche newspaper.</p><h2 id="observation">Observation</h2><p>I could not verify the article that Cloud Innovation referred to, that had statements from former senior members of AFRINIC staff. There was no reference to the article date or link online in its « right to reply » published on defimedia.info. In fact, Cloud Innovation mentions that the article has been removed by Le Défi.</p><p>I could not find Lu Heng on the <a href="https://council.ptc.org/PTC/leadership.aspx">Board of Governors</a> of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC). He is currently a For-Profit Representative in the Advisory Council of the PTC. He was elected in November 2020 for the East Asian For-Profit seat. His term on the Advisory Council started on 17 January 2021 and is valid for 4 years as per <a href="https://www.ptc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/amended-and-restated-by-laws-of-ptc-july-2018_clean_final.pdf">Article VI Section 3A of the Bylaws</a> of the Pacific Telecommunications Council. Lu Heng appears on the Advisory Council of the PTC as the CEO of Larus Ltd.</p><p>AFRINIC states breaches of its RSA as the reason for reclaiming IPv4 numbers from Cloud Innovation Ltd. The latter accuses AFRINIC of corruption and poor governance. It also claims that <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220830105900/https://defimedia.info/right-reply-cloud-innovation">AFRINIC has demanded</a> that it monitors hundreds of millions of its end users.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, reaches out to the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), for potential Board Directors</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-eddy-kayihura-reaches-out-to-the-african-telecommunications-union-for-potential-board-directors</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-eddy-kayihura-reaches-out-to-the-african-telecommunications-union-for-potential-board-directors</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 21 Jul 2022 17:53:17 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The African Telecommunications Union is a specialised agency of the African Union set up to promote the development of info-communications in Africa. The Union comprises of 48 Member States and 54 Associate Members (comprising of telecom operators).</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today, an <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2022/014372.html">email landed</a> on the AFRINIC Resource Policy Discussion list, in which a subscriber accuses the CEO of AFRINIC, Eddy Kayihura, of trying to ask a governmental body to interfere with AFRINIC's independent procedure for electing Board Directors.</p><p>The email contained two attachments;</p><ul><li>a letter sent to the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), signed by Eddy Kayihura, and</li><li>a letter by the ATU in response to E. Kayihura's request, signed by John Omo, the Secretary General of the African Telecommunications Union.</li></ul><p>The subscriber also copied the email to the global RIR community.</p><h2 id="context">Context</h2><p>Recent lawsuits against AFRINIC by <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-from-including-dr-a-omari-in-board-meetings/">Africa on Cloud (Pty) Ltd</a> and <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-ceo-from-acting-as-afrinic-director/">Crystal Web (Pty) Ltd</a> have caused the AFRINIC Board of Directors to be incapable of holding any meetings and make any decisions. Thus, causing an impediment to the organisation's proper functioning.</p><p>During the AFRINIC Annual General Members Meeting (AGMM) on the 3rd June 2022, the Board Election could not be carried out either because of a court order prohibiting the same. Eddy Kayihura sent an email to Resource Members on 16 May 2022 informing that AFRINIC was served an Interim Order of the Supreme Court of Mauritius on that same afternoon. The Order prohibited AFRINIC from proceeding further with the election of its Board.</p><h2 id="companies-act-of-mauritius">Companies Act of Mauritius</h2><p>Section 136 of the Companies Act 2001 of Mauritius stipulates —</p><!--kg-card-begin: html--><pre>
136. Court may appoint directors
     
     (1) Where –
         (a) there are no directors of a company, or the number of directors 
             is less than the quorum required for a meeting of the Board; and
         (b) it is not possible or practicable to appoint directors in 
             accordance with the company’s constitution or under section 
             140(3),
             
a shareholder or creditor of the company may apply to the Court to appoint 
one or more persons as directors of the company, and the Court may make an
appointment if it considers that it is in the interests of the company to do 
so.

     (2)  An appointment shall be made on such terms and conditions as the 
          Court thinks fit.
</pre><!--kg-card-end: html--><p>In the letter to the African Telecommunications Union, Eddy Kayihura explained that a string of litigation, initiated by a handful of Resource Members, has temporarily deprived AFRINIC of a quorum at the level of its Board of Directors.</p><p>Eddy further mentions that he is writing the letter in the capacity of a Resource Member of AFRINIC and that he intends to apply to the Supreme Court of Mauritius to appoint directors of AFRINIC. He then requests the Secretary General of the ATU, to assist him by providing a list of four or more persons who would be willing to act as director on the Board of AFRINIC (should the Supreme Court of Mauritius direct so).</p><p>John Omo, the Secretary General of the ATU, responded with a list of four persons from Mauritius, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Kenya.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>The Number Resource Organisation (NRO) writes to the Government of Mauritius</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-number-resource-organisation-writes-to-the-government-of-mauritius</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-number-resource-organisation-writes-to-the-government-of-mauritius</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2022 12:05:25 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The lawsuits against AFRINIC by one of its Resource Members has piled up in the past months. This has become a matter of serious concern not just to the African regional community but it caused ripples in the global Internet community.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are five Regional Internet Registries (RIR) in the world tasked with the responsibility to manage and allocate Internet number resources in specific parts of the world. The RIRs are:</p><ul><li>African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC)<br>Headquartered in Ebène, Mauritius. Its territory includes Africa and the Indian Ocean islands.</li><li>Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)<br>Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. Its territory includes Asia-Pacific and Oceania.</li><li>American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN)<br>Headquartered in Washington D.C, USA. Its territory includes United States, Canada and some Caribbean countries.</li><li>LACNIC, the Internet Addresses Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. Its territory includes Mexico, a number of countries in the Caribbean, and all countries southward in South America.</li><li>RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC).<br>Headquartered in Amsterdam. Its territory includes Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.</li></ul><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://sysadmin-journal.com/content/images/2022/07/RIRs.svg" class="kg-image" alt="Regional Internet Registries" loading="lazy" width="800" height="418"><figcaption>Regional Internet Registries</figcaption></figure><p>Recently, AFRINIC has faced a number of lawsuits filed in the Supreme Court of Mauritius by an entity called Cloud Innovation Ltd. The latter has its registered address in Seychelles. The lawsuits are aimed at disrupting AFRINIC's operations and thus putting at risk critical functions of the organisation.</p><p>Several Resource Members have supported AFRINIC and are continuing to do so. The latest has been the other RIRs joining hands and supporting AFRINIC through the Number Resource Organisation (NRO).</p><p>The NRO is a coordinating body for the five Regional Internet Registries. It formalises the cooperative efforts of the RIRs.</p><p>In their support towards AFRINIC, the Number Resource Organisation has addressed a letter to the Government of Mauritius, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Alan Ganoo, and the Attorney General, Hon. Manish Gobin. The letter is signed by the heads of the four Regional Internet Registries (APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPE NCC).</p><p>The letter explains the role and functions of the Regional Internet Registries. It mentions the lawsuits by Cloud Innovation Ltd and how those are disrupting AFRINIC operations. I quote from letter:</p><blockquote>It is not uncommon for a wealthy plaintiff to act in this vexatious manner. Unfortunately, it appears to us that this litigant has abused this legal process to frustrate and attempt to cause irreparable harm to the core functions of AFRINIC. For example, at least twice the courts have issued ex parte orders on behalf of this foreign domiciled litigant, whose main business is maintained outside of Africa. Those orders have severely and negatively impacted AFRINIC. The first such order froze AFRINIC’s bank accounts for an extended period of time; and while that ex parte order was lifted by the Mauritian courts once AFRINIC was able to make its case, it took nearly three months for such relief to be granted which understandably caused undue strain on the AFRINIC organization and posed a threat to the Internet ecosystem in Africa. More recently, another ex parte order was entered stopping the annual election of Directors from across Africa at AFRINIC’s Annual General Members Meeting. While we acknowledge and respect the right of complainants to seek such orders, and the Mauritian Courts to grant them, the issuance of these types of ex parte Orders have hampered the provision of a vital service necessary for Mauritius and Africa. It has placed in unnecessary and serious jeopardy the normal and routine work of Internet administration.</blockquote><p>The NRO also urges the Mauritian government to accede to AFRINIC's request to be regarded as an international organisation. The NRO believes that this status will help with more favourable outcomes in the court cases and further strengthen AFRINIC's position as a critical one in the Internet ecosystem.</p><p>Another interesting remark is that the NRO casts doubt on whether designating Mauritius as the location for AFRINIC was wrong.</p><p>The letter is published on the <a href="https://www.nro.net/nro-letter-to-mauritius-government/">NRO website</a> and a <a href="https://www.nro.net/wp-content/uploads/NRO-Letter-to-Mauritius-Government-FINAL.pdf">PDF version</a> is also available.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>Supreme Court of Mauritius prohibits AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, from acting as AFRINIC Director</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-ceo-from-acting-as-afrinic-director</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-ceo-from-acting-as-afrinic-director</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:26:20 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. AFRINIC has been fighting against a series of legal battles waged by some of its Resource Members, for quite some time.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The CEO of AFRINIC, Eddy Kayihura, send an email to the Resource Members today notifying about an <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/interim-order-20220630.pdf">Interim Order</a> of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, prohibiting:</p><ul><li>AFRINIC from acting on Board Resolution bearing reference <a href="https://afrinic.net/board/meeting/2021#r655">Resolution 202110.655</a>, given that AFRINIC does not have a Board of Directors in existence as per the law,</li><li>Eddy Kayihura from acting as ex officio director of AFRINIC, until the Board of AFRINIC is reconstituted by election.</li></ul><p>The injunction was issued in the matter of Crystal Web (Pty) Ltd vs AFRINC &amp; Eddy Kayihura.</p><p>Currently there are <a href="https://afrinic.net/court-cases">39 court cases</a> involving AFRINIC.</p><h2 id="clarification">Clarification</h2><p>I had a chat with folks within the AFRINIC Fellows Group and I should post a clarification that the Interim Order does not explicitly prohibits the AFRINIC CEO from exercising his duties as director in day-to-day AFRINIC operations. The order prevents the CEO from representing the AFRINIC Board in the legal cases in court.</p><p>If someone from a legal background has a different interpretation of this order, please let me know via <a href="https://twitter.com/IshSookun">Twitter</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC CEO announced a temporary emergency moderation of the community discussion list</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-announced-a-temporary-emergency-moderation-of-the-community-discussion-list</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-announced-a-temporary-emergency-moderation-of-the-community-discussion-list</guid>
            <pubDate>Sun, 26 Jun 2022 16:26:19 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>AFRINIC hosts several mailing lists, among which the Community Discuss &amp; the Resource Policy Discussions are two public mailing lists that are mostly active.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last Friday, the AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2022-June/005421.html">announced</a> a «temporary emergency moderation» of the Community Discussion list. The moderation of the mailing list began on Friday 24 June at 18h10 UTC and remains effective until Monday 27 June at 18h00 UTC. After that a new «protocol» will be communicated.</p><p>Eddy Kayihura stated that they have found emails that are not in line with the purpose of the mailing list nor with the principles of the AFRINIC Code of Conduct have. Therefore, they are imposing this temporary emergency moderation.</p><p>The past few days, the Community Discuss list has seen heated arguments among a few people – with allegations and personal attacks being made.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>The Supreme Court of Mauritius orders AFRINIC to not include Dr. A. Omari in Board Meetings</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-from-including-dr-a-omari-in-board-meetings</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-supreme-court-of-mauritius-prohibits-afrinic-from-including-dr-a-omari-in-board-meetings</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2022 18:56:04 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. It is responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources (IPv4, IPv6 and ASN) for the African and Indian Ocean region.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In an email sent to the Resource Members, Mr. Eddy Kayihura, the CEO of AFRINIC, informed Resource Members that an Interim Order dated 14 June 2022, issued by the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, was served to AFRINIC today, following an application made by one of its Resource Members, Africa on Cloud (Pty) Ltd.</p><p>The Order prohibits AFRINIC and its Board from:</p><ul><li>convening any board meeting where Dr. Abdalla Omari is present in his capacity as a director of AFRINIC, and</li><li>from making any decision resulting in the extension of the terms of office of any of AFRINIC's elected directors.</li></ul><p>The returnable date in court on this matter is 28 June 2022. Mr. Kayihura said that AFRINIC will not be in a position to comment further on the subject.</p><p>Dr. Abdalla Omari was elected as Board Director – Seat 6 (Eastern Africa) in the <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-board-elections-2020/">Board Elections</a> that were held on 18 September 2020. Dr. Omari was elected to serve a two-year term.</p><p>Exactly ten days ago, after the Africa Internet Summit 2022, a Board of Directors meeting was held and Dr. Omari was <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/benjamin-eshun-appointed-as-chairman-afrinic-and-dr-abdalla-omari-vice-chairman/">appointed as Vice-Chairman of AFRINIC</a>.<br><br></p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>Benjamin Eshun appointed as Chairman &amp; Dr. Abdalla Omari, Vice-Chairman of AFRINIC</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/benjamin-eshun-appointed-as-chairman-afrinic-and-dr-abdalla-omari-vice-chairman</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/benjamin-eshun-appointed-as-chairman-afrinic-and-dr-abdalla-omari-vice-chairman</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2022 07:47:26 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <category>Mauritius</category>
            <description>The AFRINIC Annual General Members’ Meeting (AGMM) is held once a year, usually during an AFRINIC Public Policy Meeting.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last Friday, the Annual General Members Meeting of AFRINIC was held at Le Méridien Hotel, Mauritius. The AGMM was held in a hybrid format – members could attend the meeting on-site or virtually via an online meeting platform.</p><p>Representatives of Resource Members could vote on polls either on-site or online, through the my.afrinic.net members portal.</p><p>The AGMM was scheduled to start at 10h00 UTC. A few members protested that the meeting cannot start as several members had not yet receive their online meeting token. Some members reported that the token they received was not good.</p><p>The first meeting token I received was not good either and I instantly reported that to legal@afrinic.net. A few minutes later I received another token which allowed me the join the meeting.</p><p>Observers could attend the meeting on-site in a separate meeting room and the meeting was also live streamed on YouTube. Observers cannot vote in polls, comment on the proceedings or ask questions.</p><p>The meeting atmosphere remained heated during the whole time.</p><p>The meeting was adjourned for 1 hour, allowing tokens to be re-generated and sent to all registered members. However, the next few hours the meeting scene remained the same.</p><p>Motions were raised, polls were called, but the overall aim of the AGMM, in my opinion, remained unfulfilled. Firstly, the Board Elections could not be carried out due to a court injunction preventing the same. Secondly, the motion to adopt the audited financial accounts failed.</p><h2 id="appointments-on-the-afrinic-board">Appointments on the AFRINIC Board</h2><p>Among all these upheaval, a <a href="https://afrinic.net/20220606-appointments-on-afrinic-board">Board of Directors meeting</a> was held on Sunday, 5 June 2022 and Mr. Benjamin Eshun was appointed as the new Board Chairmain. Dr. Abdalla Omari was appointed as Vice-Chairman.</p><p>Disagreements followed on the AFRINIC Members mailing list. Some members claimed that the requirement of 5 directors to make a quorum could not have been fulfilled since three seats are now vacant in the Board and therefore, these appointments are not valid.</p><p>I wish the new Chairman and Vice-Chairman all the best ahead. I thank S. Moonesamy, former Board Chair and Prod. H. Youssef, former Vice-Chair for their time, guidance and leadership on the AFRINIC Board.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC restricts attendance to the Annual General Members Meeting (AGMM) even ONLINE 😐</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-restricts-attendance-to-the-annual-general-members-meeting-even-online</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-restricts-attendance-to-the-annual-general-members-meeting-even-online</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2022 19:23:43 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <category>Africa</category>
            <category>Mauritius</category>
            <category>Conference</category>
            <description>The Africa Internet Summit (AIS) is an annual, regional, multi-stakeholder ICT conference. AIS&#039;22 is jointly organised by the Africa Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) in collaboration with the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG).</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Africa Internet Summit 2022 is being held on 30th May – 3rd June at Le Méridien Hotel, Pte aux Piments in Mauritius. The AFRINIC Annual General Members Meeting (AGMM) is scheduled on the last day of the Africa Internet Summit, i.e Friday 3rd June 2022.</p><p>Many AFRINIC Resource Members look forward to this meeting and they travel every year to attend the meeting in person. Others who cannot make it can still participate and ask questions via the online conference system.</p><p>I have been attending AFRINIC Meetings since 2017. I have attended a few meetings online and two of the meetings in-person. I have attended the meetings as a Resource Member since 2019. I have never seen AFRINIC restricting Resource Members from attending the AGMM in the past.</p><p>Today, in a email the AFRINIC Legal Team informed members that due to the prevailing sanitary protocol in Mauritius, only one representative of a Resource Member will be allowed to attend the meeting in-person. However, to the astonishment and incomprehension of several members, the legal team also stated that only one representative per Resource Member will be allowed to join the meeting via the online conference system.</p><p>Several members have raised questions over this statement. I questioned the legal team about it and in <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2022-May/005251.html">response</a> the AFRINIC Communications team stated that —</p><blockquote>Article 12.14(9) provides, inter-alia as follows - "Corporations may act by representative. A corporate body, which is a Member, may appoint a representative to attend an Annual General Members’ Meeting on its behalf in the same manner as that in which it could appoint a proxy.”.</blockquote><p>The <a href="https://afrinic.net/bylaws">AFRINIC Bylaws</a>, from which the above article is quoted, does not state that a corporate body, which is a Member, can be represented by one person only.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC – CEO Impromptu Travel &amp; attempt to oust the Board Chair</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-impromptu-travel-and-attempt-to-oust-the-board-chair</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-ceo-impromptu-travel-and-attempt-to-oust-the-board-chair</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 17 May 2022 16:53:43 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. It is responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources (IPv4, IPv6 and ASN) for the African and Indian Ocean region.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>AFRINIC is currently under a lot of pressure and criticism. Criticism especially, because of the way <a href="https://afrinic.net/court-cases">legal affairs</a> are being handled, issues with regards to the candidate slate of the upcoming <a href="https://afrinic.net/20220510-final-candidate-slate-for-afrinic-board-elections-2022">Board elections</a>, the AGMM etc.</p><p>I am following updates about the Board elections. The Independent Seat 7 is one for which Mauritians are eligible to run as candidate and therefore I am interested in knowing about the candidates for this seat.</p><p>Writing about the Board elections is something that would make up a full blog post and I should probably cover that separately. In this post, I am writing about something peculiar that I found in the minutes of the AFRINIC Board meetings.</p><p>On the 13th of November 2021, a <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/2021-miinutes/20211113-minutes.pdf">special Board meeting</a> was called, at 10h17 UTC via AFRINIC's online conferencing system. Five Board Directors and the AFRINIC CEO were present in the meeting. Two Board Directors were absent. What is particular about this meeting is one item in the agenda, mentioned as <strong>CEO Impromptu Travel</strong>.</p><p>Now, we know that AFRINIC staff travel at the organisation's expense and any travel related to AFRINIC business by the CEO will be covered by AFRINIC. However, I am curious, what was that "impromptu travel" about, that it became a Board meeting agenda item?</p><p>Well, that day the special Board meeting could not proceed due to an irregularity about the meeting's notice to Board directors.</p><p>So, still curious I checked the <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/2021-miinutes/20211124-minutes.pdf">minutes of the next Board meeting</a>, which was held on the 24th November 2021 at 09h10 UTC via the AFRINIC online conferencing system. This time only one Board director was absent. I looked at the agenda to see if the <strong>CEO Impromptu Travel</strong> item was brought up again but this time I find that a Board Director moved a motion of no confidence in the Chairman.</p><p>The Board director said that there is <strong>no good working relationship between the CEO and the Chair</strong>. The Board director proposed the motion of no confidence in the Chairman and to my surprise this motion was seconded by none other than the CEO himself.</p><p>I find this an extremely conflicted situation. How come the CEO seconds a motion of confidence in the Chair when the CEO himself is mentioned in the objection? If tomorrow the CEO is not in a good working relationship with another Board Chair, then what? Would there be another no confidence vote?</p><p>The timing of the motion of no confidence, right after an <strong>Impromptu Travel</strong> by the CEO being on the Board agenda, makes me think that the Board director who proposed the motion and the CEO might have colluded to oust the current Board Chair.</p><p>Nevertheless, the motion failed as the votes were four against three in favour of the Board Chair.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>Cloud Innovation Ltd loses appeal against AFRINIC</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/cloud-innovation-ltd-loses-appeal-against-afrinic</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/cloud-innovation-ltd-loses-appeal-against-afrinic</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2022 18:46:51 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>TL;DR — AFRINIC has won. A dramatic legal battle that started in March of last year, can be probably said to be concluded now.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The CEO of AFRINIC, Eddy Kayihura, in an <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2022-February/005101.html">email</a> addressed to the Resource Members and the AFRINIC Community, informed that Cloud Innovation Ltd lost its appeal against the ruling that the Judge in Chambers delivered in July 2021 where Cloud Innovation's application for Interim Injunction was set aside.</p><p>As a reminder, in March 2021, AFRINIC sent Cloud Innovation Ltd a letter informing the latter that it was in breach of the Registration Service Agreement. A legal battle followed, which left AFRINIC <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-bank-account-of-the-african-regional-internet-registry-afrinic-has-been-frozen/">unable to access its bank accounts</a> for a few months. AFRINIC won part of the battle when the Judge in Chambers had set aside Cloud Innovation Ltd's application for injunctive relief.</p><p>Cloud Innovation Ltd had appealed against the ruling.</p><p>Following Cloud Innovation Ltd's appeal against the July 2021 ruling, the Supreme Court of Mauritius had ordered that AFRINIC reinstates Cloud Innovation Ltd's membership pending a decision. In an <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2021-July/004202.html">email</a> addressed to the community on 15 July 2021, Eddy Kayihura stated that his team was « in the process of implementing the reversal action » to comply with the Supreme Court order.</p><p>Now that Cloud Innovation has <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/case9-judgement.pdf">lost this part of the battle</a> too, the community will be eager to see what AFRINIC does next.</p><p>In fact, as I write this blog post, Dewole Ajao, an active participant in the AFRINIC Community Discuss and former Co-Chair of the Policy Development Working Group (PDWG), <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2022-February/005103.html">reacted</a> to Eddy Kayihura's email.</p><p>I quote him:</p><blockquote>Thanks for the update which you seem to be celebrating (if I read you correctly). For those like me who are legalese-challenged, does this mean that Cloud Innovation's resources are now effectively revoked? If I remember correctly, all of this started with a notice that resources were to be revoked at a certain date on the basis of non-compliance with the RSA, right?</blockquote><p>Indeed, many community members will wait to see how long does AFRINIC take to revert back whatever « reversal process » they had implemented in July of last year.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>Sylvio Almada Cabral appointed as AFRINIC Board director</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/sylvio-almada-cabral-appointed-as-afrinic-board-director</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/sylvio-almada-cabral-appointed-as-afrinic-board-director</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2022 16:14:51 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. AFRINIC Board consists of nine members, six of whom are elected to represent sub-regions, two are from independent regions and one seat is occupied by the CEO.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last year, when AFRINIC was in the spotlight following its <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-bank-account-of-the-african-regional-internet-registry-afrinic-has-been-frozen/">bank accounts being frozen</a> due to a litigation, <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-board-director-mark-elkins-resigns-with-immediate-effect/">one of its board directors, Mark Elkins, resigned</a>. Mark had been recently elected to occupy Seat 5 on the board. He served the board for barely a month or so but resigned expressing disagreement with what was happening at that time.</p><p>Seat 5 remained vacant since.</p><p>Today, in a email on the <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/announce/2022/002324.html">AFRINIC announcement list</a>, the AFRINIC Board Chairman, S. Moonesamy, informed its members and the community that Sylvio Almada Cabral has been appointed as director with effect from 27 December 2021 until the next AGMM which is planned to be held in June 2022.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>The decision to end Cloud Innovation Ltd&#039;s membership and reclaim number resources</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-decision-to-end-cloud-innovation-ltd-membership</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-decision-to-end-cloud-innovation-ltd-membership</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2021 11:50:32 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>AFRINIC resource member Cloud Innovation Ltd&#039;s membership was revoked in July 2021, which prompted the latter to start a serious legal battle against the organisation and leaving AFRINIC unable to access its bank accounts for some months.</description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Back in July this year I wrote a bunch of blog posts about the legal battle between <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/tag/afrinic/">AFRINIC</a> and one of its resource members, Cloud Innovation Ltd. Around that time, I read several discussion threads on the AFRINIC mailing lists to grasp what was happening and more specifically why it was happening.</p><p>I missed something around that time. Probably, something crucial about how the decision was made to terminate the membership of Cloud Innovation Ltd and to start the reclamation of number resources.</p><p>The decision to revoke Cloud Innovation Ltd's membership was made during an AFRINIC Board meeting held on the 8ᵗʰ July 2021 via the online conference system. This is mentioned in the <a href="https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/2021-miinutes/20210707-08-minutes.pdf">minutes of meeting published on afrinic.net</a>.</p><p>On page 13 of the minutes of meeting, item number 11 refers to Assisted Review. This item was asked to be included in the agenda by AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura. A resolution was passed unanimously to terminate the membership of Cloud Innovation Ltd, freeze the latter's account and to take all reasonable steps to inform users about the imminent reclamation of number resources.</p><p>It was proposed by board member, Benjamin Eshun and seconded by the CEO, Eddy Kayihura. All board members voted for this resolution.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC regains access to its banks accounts</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-regains-access-to-its-banks-accounts</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-regains-access-to-its-banks-accounts</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Oct 2021 14:44:47 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <description>A legal battle has been going on for months between AFRINIC and one of its resource members, Cloud Innovation Ltd. The latter has initiated several cases against AFRINIC. In one of them it requested the Court to freeze AFRINIC&#039;s bank accounts.</description>
            <media:content url="https://sysadmin-journal.com/content/images/2021/10/eddy-kayihura-afrinic-ceo.jpg" medium="image" />
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In a email providing updates on the legal case, the AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2021-October/thread.html">announced</a> its resource members and the community that the matter between AFRINIC and Cloud Innovation Ltd was heard in Court today, and that the outcome was a relief.</p><p>Since July this year, AFRINIC could not access its banks accounts. Following a legal case initiated by Cloud Innovation Ltd against AFRINIC, the Court had <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-bank-account-of-the-african-regional-internet-registry-afrinic-has-been-frozen/">ordered that the accounts be frozen</a>. AFRINIC's initial appeal was rejected and later it was only granted to access part of the funds to cover operational costs.</p><p>Today, in the Court, the judge declared the freeze order null and void, meaning that the banks will have to restore access to the AFRINIC's accounts.</p><p>I am glad that AFRINIC came out victorious but the battle with Cloud Innovation Ltd is not over, yet.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>AFRINIC Court Case — Disappointment!</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-court-case-disappointment</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/afrinic-court-case-disappointment</guid>
            <pubDate>Sun, 15 Aug 2021 05:07:59 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>AFRINIC CEO, Eddy Kayihura, informed Resource Members that their request to unfreeze the organisation&#039;s bank accounts was rejected by the Mauritian court.</description>
            <media:content url="https://sysadmin-journal.com/content/images/2021/08/photo-1620662831351-9f68f76d0b9a-1.jpg" medium="image" />
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The <a href="https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-bank-account-of-the-african-regional-internet-registry-afrinic-has-been-frozen/">case involving AFRINIC</a> and one of its Resource Member, Cloud Innovation Ltd, appeared in court on Thursday 13 August 2021. I was looking forward to hearing the updates from AFRINIC COMMS and sincerely hoping that the legal team of AFRINIC be able to get the organisation's bank accounts unfrozen.</p><p>Alas, to my great disappointment, through an update sent by the AFRINIC CEO Eddy Kayihura on the <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2021-August/004745.html">Members Mailing List</a>, I learned that AFRINIC's request was rejected by the Judge. The reason for the rejection was given by the CEO and I quote:</p><blockquote>The Honorable Judge did not accede to our request and was of the view that <u>the application was procedurally incorrect</u> and should have been entered differently.</blockquote><p>I expected the AFRINIC legal team to be much better prepared and not have their request rejected due to incorrect procedures.</p><p>In my opinion, the AFRINIC management have failed. I called on people and organisations to express support to AFRINIC but management should keep in mind that cases are not won by public sympathy. You can't be reckless in court. </p><p>It would be a shame to see AFRINIC lose this battle due to petty mistakes. 😔</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title>The Tanzania ISP Association (TISPA) issues a statement &amp; reminds everyone about the critical services of AFRINIC</title>
            <link>https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-tanzania-isp-association-tispa-issues-statement-about-afrinic</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">https://sysadmin-journal.com/the-tanzania-isp-association-tispa-issues-statement-about-afrinic</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2021 20:04:06 +0000</pubDate>
            <dc:creator>Ish Sookun</dc:creator>
            <category>AFRINIC</category>
            <category>Internet Community</category>
            <description>The Supreme Court of Mauritius has ordered that the bank accounts of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and Indian Ocean region, be temporarily frozen, following a dispute between AFRI...</description>
            <media:content url="https://sysadmin-journal.com/content/images/2021/07/Regional_Internet_Registries_world_map.jpg" medium="image" />
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Supreme Court of Mauritius has ordered that the bank accounts of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and Indian Ocean region, be temporarily frozen, following a dispute between AFRINIC and one of its Resource Member, Cloud Innovation Ltd.</p><p>The ramifications of AFRINIC's frozen bank accounts are severe. The Tanzania ISP Association (TISPA) reminded everyone of the severity of these actions via their <a href="https://tispa.or.tz/news/statement-of-tanzania-isp-association-tispa-regarding-afrinic">statement</a> that they posted today. In the statement, TISPA explained the role of AFRINIC in running critical services for the global Internet and how these services could be impacted with the recent development in the legal dispute. I quote:</p><blockquote>... AFRINIC is the authoritative source of information about delegations of IP addresses and ASNs done by AFRINIC. To make this information available, AFRINIC operates servers in various locations, where is needs to pay for services such as co-location (of the equipment) and Internet connectivity — to make the services available globally.</blockquote><blockquote>We are concerned that if AFRINIC's banks accounts are frozen and AFRINIC can not make payments for these services — or for that matter to its own staff to maintain, manage and monitor these services — then critical services might fail.</blockquote><p>The full statement of TISPA <a href="https://pdfhost.io/v/JliAYEKKu_TISPA_STATEMENT_LETTER_TO_AfriNIC.pdf">can be read or downloaded here</a>.</p><p>AFRINIC is domiciled in Mauritius. It is sad to note that none of its Mauritian Resource Members have expressed public support to the organisation or issued any statement reminding all parties of the critical infrastructure that AFRINIC operates.</p><h2 id="update">Update</h2><ul><li>30 July 2021<br>- The Internet Service Providers' Association of South Africa <a href="https://ispa.org.za/press_releases/ispa-statement-on-recent-afrinic-developments/">issued a statement</a> on the AFRINIC developments.<br>- The Internet Service Providers' Association of the Democratic Republic of Congo <a href="http://www.ispa-drc.cd/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=31&amp;Itemid=30">issued a statement</a> in support of AFRINIC and requested all parties to take into account the continuity of universal service while continuing the judicia process.<br></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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