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Africa’s digital sovereignty hangs in the balance as AfriNIC, the continent’s sole internet registry, faces potential collapse under mounting legal pressure and governance failure, raising fears of cybercrime and loss of digital sovereignty.
The crisis — escalating since 2022 — has reached a critical stage with Cloud Innovation Ltd. filing for judicial liquidation on 9 July, threatening to dismantle Africa’s IP address management framework. AfriNIC, the Mauritius-based a non-profit organization, which is responsible for Africa’s IP address management, has suffered from over 50 lawsuits, financial paralysis, and failed elections, leading the country’s Supreme Court to place it under receivership. The latest annulled elections, marred by proxy voting and database breaches, deepened mistrust within the internet governance community.
Cloud Innovation, a Seychelles-based firm and one of AfriNIC’s top three members, argues the registry is irreversibly broken and has backed transferring duties to another Regional Internet Registry under global compliance standards. Meanwhile, critics fear this could open the door to foreign control over Africa’s internet infrastructure. Smart Africa, representing 40 African nations, has spearheaded a coordinated response. It convened ICT ministers, collaborated with ICANN and the African Union, and proposed a transitional legal framework to protect service continuity and regional control.
In its July statement, this Pan-African initiative “(expressed) deep concern over the escalating governance crisis affecting the AfriNIC … and the serious threat it poses to the continent’s digital sovereignty, the resilience of its Internet infrastructure, and Africa’s standing in global Internet governance fora.” The core question remains: will Africa govern its own internet destiny, or yield to external oversight? As court proceedings resume, the continent must act decisively to safeguard its digital future.
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